There are a lot of things you need to know about this movie. One is that very little of the plot makes any sense. Seriously, you really mustn't try to follow what's going on, or work out who's on which side, or who in the hell that English woman is supposed to be. If you start trying to apply concepts like 'logic' and 'causation' to this movie, your brains will start to dribble out of your ears in a terribly messy way. It's better to just sit back and enjoy the ride.
And what a ride it is. The movie is set in Hong Kong, which has never looked more weird or more wonderful. Every shot drips with atmosphere, every individual scene is memorable. And as for the action scenes... well, these are some of the best fight scenes I can recall in a recent movie. All the characters have some kind of super power, and just for once they get to use them in imaginative ways - guns that really can shoot round corners, guys being dragged along the ceiling, and much more.
Mind you, the strength and the type of super power varies more or less according to what the plot says it should do, but that's another of those things you shouldn't worry too much about. The ride is fun, and it works better if you check your common sense in at the door. And try not to notice that most of these people can't act for toffee. Chris Evans is OK but instantly forgettable, as usual, and Dakota Fanning is all right, but everyone else is pretty poor. Again, it doesn't really get in the way of the fun.
What does, though, is the ending. I won't say too much about what happens because.. well, nothing much happens. This isn't your ambiguous ending, as in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly or the original Italian Job. This is an ending where literally NOTHING of any importance is resolved. The big bad is still around, Dakota's mum still hasn't been rescued - despite us being told that if she wasn't saved right now, she would die - the main Chinese baddies and that English woman are still knocking about somewhere, and it's not so much an ending that is sequel-friendly as one that needs a sequel to give even a little sense of satisfaction or closure. Any movie, even if it's definitely going to have a sequel, needs some kind of closure at the end, but this has none, and that's deeply frustrating. It also leaves the nasty taste of studio meddling in the mouth, of a bunch of men in suits who decided that everything had to be left open for the next, highly profitable episode. It's a shame that such an unusual, individual movie should end in such a cynical way.
And what a ride it is. The movie is set in Hong Kong, which has never looked more weird or more wonderful. Every shot drips with atmosphere, every individual scene is memorable. And as for the action scenes... well, these are some of the best fight scenes I can recall in a recent movie. All the characters have some kind of super power, and just for once they get to use them in imaginative ways - guns that really can shoot round corners, guys being dragged along the ceiling, and much more.
Mind you, the strength and the type of super power varies more or less according to what the plot says it should do, but that's another of those things you shouldn't worry too much about. The ride is fun, and it works better if you check your common sense in at the door. And try not to notice that most of these people can't act for toffee. Chris Evans is OK but instantly forgettable, as usual, and Dakota Fanning is all right, but everyone else is pretty poor. Again, it doesn't really get in the way of the fun.
What does, though, is the ending. I won't say too much about what happens because.. well, nothing much happens. This isn't your ambiguous ending, as in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly or the original Italian Job. This is an ending where literally NOTHING of any importance is resolved. The big bad is still around, Dakota's mum still hasn't been rescued - despite us being told that if she wasn't saved right now, she would die - the main Chinese baddies and that English woman are still knocking about somewhere, and it's not so much an ending that is sequel-friendly as one that needs a sequel to give even a little sense of satisfaction or closure. Any movie, even if it's definitely going to have a sequel, needs some kind of closure at the end, but this has none, and that's deeply frustrating. It also leaves the nasty taste of studio meddling in the mouth, of a bunch of men in suits who decided that everything had to be left open for the next, highly profitable episode. It's a shame that such an unusual, individual movie should end in such a cynical way.