Invisible Target (2007/Dragon Dynasty/Genius DVD Set)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: C+
Benny
Chan has spent his career making Jackie Chan films, so I had little expectation
for his bid to do a more serious Gangster/Martial Arts thriller and Invisible Target (2007) is as phony and
over-processed as you would expect from someone who did comedy one to many
times in both cases to go “serious” or “legitimate” in this tale of three
unlikely allies fighting a deadly Triad gang.
The story
is formulaic, acting passable, martial arts overly staged and result typical of
most such productions of late just going through the motions and offering
nothing new. I was surprisingly bored
and if it was not for the fight scenes, would have fallen asleep. Big fans might like this one, but originality
and ambition in the storyline is certainly “invisible” and like invisible ink,
the film quickly disappears from sight and memory after watching it.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in Super 35mm film by Chan Kwok
Hung and Ko Chiu Lam (Chiu-Lam Ko) and may be soft too often, but has a good
look to it. Color is consistent, but the
image can lack depth more than it should for its own good. The DTS Cantonese 5.1 is better than the
Dolby 5.1 options, but all are compressed, too much in the center channel and
not recorded with multi-channel in mind.
The combination is watchable at best, but I hope it is better on
Blu-ray. Extras in DVD 1 include a
trailer gallery, making of featurette and audio commentary by expert Bey Logan
and three of the cast, while DVD 2 adds seven interview sections, three
featurettes and deleted/extended scenes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
