Rating of
0.5/4
Intelligence as virtue - the debate continues
industrialist - wrote on 09/14/09
A dungheap of ransacked ideas, cultural appropriation and bastardized orthodoxies, Warriors of Virtue is an anemic copy of every film it has stolen from and an obnoxious, soulless experience of its own accord. In fairness, there is some sterling production design, but the achievements of the technical crew is all for naught as director Ronny Yu labours through with a discordant narrative, joyless performances and oddly incoherent action sequences.
The central premise - sass-mouthed American whiteboy is saviour to the mentally inept denizens of an Asian-themed world - predates the similarly laughable presumptions of 'The Forbidden Kingdom', which is the only compliment it can be afforded (albeit a backhanded one since a slumming Jet Li and Jackie Chan are far more tolerable than a shrieking, wailing Angus MacFayden). By this time the Ninja Turtles movement had lost its novelty and 'Tank Girl' had already exploited humanoid mutant marsupials, leaving us with only a shameless rip-off of Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz and The Neverending Story minus the charm, exuberance and entertainment value. Among the numerously awful products of 90s low-brow cinema, I can think of no more thorough insult to 'Warriors of Virtue' than saying 'Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie' was a far more enjoyable experience in 1997.
