The
Avenging Fist (2001/Well Go DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Film: C+
In
the future the world is control by the police who use the 'Power
Glove', a glove designed to unlock 100% of the human potential, but
when a rogue police 'Combat 21' decides humankind is unworthy of the
power, he begins to capture and brainwash all those who can use the
glove and creates his Red Dragon Army to take over the world. This
is the world of Andrew Lau's The Avenging Fist (2001) with the
legendary Sammo Hung.
Nova was just a boy who used his
father's 'Avenging Fists' martial arts to make a quick buck off the
streets. When his mother is attacked and killed by a mysterious man,
she gives him a power glove and tells him he is the only one who can
stop Combat 21 and his father is alive, but turns out the mysterious
man who killed his mother IS his father who has been brainwashed.
Can Nova find the strength and will to defeat Combat 21 and face his
father?
This film looked like another long lost film from some
archive. The CGI looked like it came from early 3-D video games. The
plot and story seemed a little like Star Wars-ish with the
whole "I am your father and you must fight me." bit. The
battles looked like they came out of some Dragon Ball fight
scene of guys standing around and comparing who has the biggest
psychic energy balls.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in real anamorphic
Elite Scope with Fuji 35mm negative films & Arriflex cameras,
cleaned up here, but it only looks so good and is passable at best
(they probably need to retransfer the film in a new HD master, then
figure out what to do about that really OLD CGI), while the original
sound was Dolby Digital theatrical with a 6.1 EX mix, we get a lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1 without it. It also looks like a previous DVD was
issued (overseas?) in discrete DTS-ES 6.1, but we get none of that
here. The combination is very sadly average. Extras include
trailers.
-
Ricky Chiang
