WARRIORS OF VIRTUE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
WARRIORS OF VIRTUE features five organic superheroes, who must rely on the natural weapons of earth, water, metal, wood, and fire to fight their battles. They possess the classic virtues of benevolence, righteousness, order, wisdom and loyalty, and their creed does not permit them to kill, even in the heat of battle. Their hokey latex suits make them look like donkeys standing on their hind legs, but actually they are supposed to be fighting kangaroos known as Roo-Warriors. As Dave Berry would say, "I am not making this up."
Four brothers, Chris, Dennis, Jeremy, and Ron Law, who are medical doctors from Hong Kong, had the idea for the film and are its producers. Although adults may be bored stiff by the confusing story and find the outfits laughable, the film will undoubtedly find an eager audience with the grade school group.
The film starts off strongly with a highly imaginative kung fu sequence inside the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant. Peter Pau's cinematography is stunning throughout the film, especially during the food photography. The images remind one of LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE. A lavish food scene of sumptuous beauty is the last thing one expects in a kids' movie, especially a magical, superhero one. Another lavish scene has moving lanterns in the distance against a bluish night. This one appears as though lifted out of a Metropolitan Opera production.
Wide eyed Mario Yedidia, who was George in the movie JACK, plays Ryan Jeffers, a boy with big ambitions but with a metal brace on one of his legs. "It's pretty hard to fly if you have a broken wing," he explains to his friend and mentor from the restaurant. Ryan, whom we first meet reading on the toilet, is absorbed in his sword and sorcery books. His imaginary life has all the aspects missing from his real life and more.
One day, the school quarterback and local Lucifer, dares Ryan to walk on a pipe over a treacherous whirlpool. Ryan falls and "dies," but awakens in an underworld populated by the type of heroes whom he has read about. And, miracle of miracles, his leg has been cured and the brace has disappeared.
In Ryan's new and magical world, the Warriors of Virtue, led by Master Chung (Chao Li Chi) fight the forces of evil controlled by a warlord named Komodo, played by Angus MacFadyen, who was Robert the Bruce in BRAVEHEART. The less said about MacFadyen's atrocious acting, the better.
One of the people Ryan meets in this underworld kingdom is a gorgeous girl named Elysia, played by Marley Shelton, who was Tricia Nixon in NIXON. Shirley Chan's costumes for her are luxurious gowns, some in innocent white with high necks and some low cut and in voluptuous colors. Both are in strong contrast to the dull forest colors on the rest of the actors. My immediate reaction on seeing her was a desire to tell the kid to lose those donkeys and grab the girl.
Elysia gives Ryan a 30-second explanation of the characters and their places in his new environment, but it makes about as much sense as flipping through the Cliff's Notes version of "War and Peace." Eventually, the story comes together somewhat, but the confusion remains. It feels like you are watching the twenty-fourth episode of a dungeons and dragons series, where you missed the first twenty-three episodes.
As an adult, there is only one way to survive the film -- crank your brain down to third grade level. Ignoring the silly plot and funny rubber heads, you can begin to appreciate the majesty of the rest of the production. The sets are by Academy Award winner Eugenio Zanetti, who won the award this past year for his creations for RESTORATION. In both films, the sets are the most impressive parts of the movie. Zanetti's vision of a fantasy world has a forest of gigantic trees all shrouded in fog. A stream runs through the dense forest, and the houses are build amongst the trees. A tad too dark for the preschool set, but beautiful nevertheless. He and the director of photography clearly worked together closely on the effect they wanted to create.
The film is at its most magical in the choreographing of the fight sequences. They are done in a blur with the characters whirling around each other. Golden, autumnal leaves swirl with them in a dazzle of color.
Finally, I must comment at length on the PG rating of the film, which I fear may be too lenient. There is a single bad cuss word in the film, and it is used effectively for humor in one of the movie's best lines. Still, it is just the sort of inappropriate phrase that your kid will repeat endlessly. The film has several open mouth kissing scenes, where the kisses are carefully aborted just before the lips and tongues touch. The biggest problem comes in several violent scenes which would have worked just as well without the blood. If you make the mistake of taking kids younger than seven, they may repeat Ryan's plea: "I don't want to be here anymore. I don't want to see death. I just want to go home."
WARRIORS OF VIRTUE runs 1:41. It is rated PG. The film's target audience is the grade school crowd. Younger ones may be frightened, and older ones bored. My son, Jeffrey (age 8), says the film is "super," and wants me to take him to see it again soon. The beauty of the production convinced me to give the picture thumbs up and ** 1/2.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: April 28, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews