Cold War II presented itself a much more coherent and entertaining movie than its predecessor.
What I liked about the movie was the strong cast that really acted and a storyline that's kept well in tone and easy to follow.
Let me start with the weak link. Once again, Charlie Yung had no business being in this movie. Acting beside the likes of Aaron Kwok and Tony Leung, she kept taking me out of the movie. And her character, Phoenix - the worst name ever in movies - how do you take someone seriously when they are called Phoenix? - did not exude power and authority to be written in that way.
Directed once again by Luk Kim Ching and Leung Lok Man, they have showed much improvement in direction; but there were just a few more nuances they like to place at the end of a sequence that were unnecessary and self-indulgent. An example would be Leung's character passing by a book shelf and handling strangers a book, just to rub in the audince's faces a value that the character may or may not possess.
Also, though the writing this time was much less convoluted, the dialogue sometimes still felt a little forced.
But a lot of these can be overlooked as the stellar performances all around made up for a lot of shortcomings. Chow Yun Fatt's addition was much welcomed. As were the action sequences in the movie that, could have done less with explosions but nevertheless, still felt real and intense.
And the ending this time really felt like they are expecting to make another sequel as it was kept very open.
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