WOLF WARRIOR (战狼) DVD (2015)

SYNOPSIS: An Elite Squad of Mercenaries Just Met Their Deadliest Target. Sergeant Leng Feng (Jacky Wu), top marksman of the Chinese Special Forces, is jailed under court martial for disobeying orders. But he's just the kind of fighter the Wolf Warriors are looking for. Silent. Stealthy. Deadly. The Wolves bring Feng into their pack, honing his skills to a knife's edge. But another team has Feng on their radar: a group of corrupt blades-for-hire, seeking revenge for the drug lord's murder.

MOVIE REVIEW:

In his second directorial outing, action star Wu Jing (SPL, Legendary Assassin) decides to compose a love song for the People’s Liberation Army, PLA for short. And to mildly put it, it’s horrendously cheesy and out of tune.

Wu Jing co-writes and directs Wolf Warrior and also stars in the lead role as Leng Feng, an army sniper with superb marksmanship and kickass moves. But when a drug-busting mission goes awry, Feng is transferred to the Special Forces unit also known as Wolf Warrior under its female commander, Long Xiaoyun (The Expendables 2).

Character development is zilch, the jokes are both sexist and corny with the overall story so subpar that you thought it was written by Wong Jing. This is how bad Wolf Warrior is. And to make matters even worse, it features even more gunfire and explosions than hand-to-hand combat sequences and you thought it’s a typical Wu Jing action flick.

By the way, didn’t we see someone by the name of Scott Edward Atkins (The Expendables 2, The Legend of Hercules) being credited on the cover as well? A pity considering his role is a mere glorified cameo. Scott Atkins as he commonly known plays a ruthless foreign mercenary, Tom Cat who is being hired by a drug lord, Ming Deng (Ni Dahong) to avenge his brother’s death. The plan is simple enough that is to take out Leng Feng during his battalion exercise. War games turned real and deadly as Leng Feng and his platoon mates have to take on Tom Cat and friends mid way while Leng Feng’s supposedly love interest, Xiaoyun stands in front of greenscreen and talks to wireless mic the whole time.

Wolf Warrior is akin to The Expendables and Sammo Hung’s superb Eastern Condors thrown into a blender. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really expand on the good work established by the two. The plotting is so full of bullet holes and head scratching that you will seriously find hard to digest. For example, there’s some heated competition between Long and a senior male commander that goes nowhere. Second, camaraderie between Leng and his mates are hardly touches upon; followed by an unnecessary horrible CGI wolves attack sequence that would have meant much more if Liam Neeson were in it. Worst of all, it features plenty of generic running and gunplay in the forest that you wonder why Wu Jing would hire a talented fighter liked Atkins in the first place.

The long anticipated face off between Leng Feng and Tom Cat came towards the end and it lasted for a mere minute or so. A few campy moves here and there, blink your eyes a little and it’s all over. Wolf Warrior actually did pretty well in China that Wu Jing is prepping for Part 2 with Frank Grillo and the fight coordinator of Captain America: Civil War joining the production. To be frank, Wu Jing actually got lucky with Wolf Warrior. It’s so bad and pointless that true action fans probably won’t bother rewatching it. Why embark on material that Hollywood can do so much better.  

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The DVD only comes with a Trailer and Previews. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

For a movie that features generous doses of gunshots and explosions, the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track is loud and dynamic. Visually, the movie simply looks flat and hardly impressive. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee