Warriors of Future (2022)

C'est un film qui ne va pas renouveler les univers dystopiques ni même les tréfonds du cinéma. Par contre, une production hongkongaise comme celle-ci, elles sont rares. Par rare, j'entends une production qui en impose sur tout, ou presque.

Les combats sont incroyables et surtout, ils ne lésinent pas dessus. Les scènes sont longues et évolutives. Nos héros reçoivent autant qu'ils donnent. On ne change pas soudainement de scènes pour y revenir plus tard et découvrir que le combat s'est achevé par magie. Au contraire ! Tu veux de la baston ? Tu en as !
Le slow-motion est sensationnel. Et j'insiste sur le mot, sensationnel. Ce n'est pas la première fois que je me fais la réflexion, le cinéma asiatique maîtrise clairement cette technique. Et lors des scènes de combat, autant dire qu'il est utilisé avec soin et ça fonctionne.
Le reste du film est très bon. Les costumes sont de bonnes factures, tout comme les décors et les CGI. De temps à autre, j'ai eu l'impression de voir du District 9 (film de 2009) ou sur les tenues/costumes/mécaniques de voir quelques clins d'œil au jeu Death Stranding (sorti en 2019).
Son défaut ? L'image. Malheureusement, on se retrouve avec l'impression que le film est en bas débit. Ainsi, la qualité de l'image n'est pas aussi spectaculaire que prévu. Si vous souhaitez chipoter, on pourra également dire que le scénario est assez classique. Mais encore une fois, je préfère un scénario simple et correct que complexe et mauvais.

Malgré son image, le cinéma sino-hongkongais n'a pas à rougir. Bien que Warrior of Future ne casse pas les codes du genre, il possède des bases solides sur lesquelles il est plaisant de s'attarder.

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Whose got the weed killer and a giant fly swatter?!

Louis Koo and his production company produced Hong Kong's biggest Sci-Fi movie to date. A CGI extravaganza, Warriors of Future pits man against nature in a dystopian future not too far away.

Due to man's greed and technological negligence and nearly endless robot wars, the planet's water and air have become polluted to the point of toxicity. Great domes are being built over the cities to try an give people a healthier environment. All seems to be going well when a meteor hits and a giant plant starts taking over. On the plus side, the plant is cleansing the air. Hong Kong now called section B-16 will be destroyed by the planted dubbed Pandora when the next rain hits. Carina Lau's military character is wanting to drop a bomb on the plant that will kill 160,000 people. In come Louis Koo and Lau Ching Wan to save the day by going into the belly of the plant to set off a bomb with a virus which will make the plant go dormant. No problem, right? Aside from the plants deadly ability to defend itself, it also has a host of giant bugs at its disposal. Throw in a traitorous human's evil doings and the good guys have their hands full. Phillip Keung also appears as a man in need of redemption.

The problem with Warriors of Tomorrow, aside from its obvious lack of an article (at least one "the") in the title, is that it dumps the viewer into the middle of the story. I can only guess that they thought the audience only wants to see the battles. The movie would have benefited from us feeling the relief of the domes being built along with the people and then the devastation of the meteor hitting and the giant plant erupting and destroying cities. We weren't there when the race to find a way to destroy or slow the plant was developed. Instead, we are told this information in flashback along with Koo's brief backstory and thrown right into the battle. There was little ebb and flow, just high speed, high tech fights against other tech and the enormous flora.

Koo, Lau, and Keung all gave emotional, compelling performances. Much of the rest of the cast came across deadpan and stilted. There was little humor to break up the lethal action. The CGI was actually high quality, especially for a Hong Kong film, and it's a good thing because there was a lot of CGI spectacle from beginning to end.

I actually found the movie entertaining, even if the writing let it down. It was obviously highly influenced by other films. I almost found myself quoting those films when the similar scenes popped up on the screen. I wish they'd spent as much time and money on the writing for the film as they had the sets and CGI. This would have been a far better film if they had.

In the end, who doesn't like to watch a bunch of men in metal tech take on an invasive plant species and carnivorous bugs. Anyone who has had to deal with kudzu and/or fire ants might feel the need for such superior hardware themselves. There are better movies in this genre, but for a first try it still managed to be fun.

12/6/22

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