War (2007) Jason Statham vs Jet Li

Hello everybody! Well here it is, number four of the week!

WAR

TITLE: War

DIRECTOR: Phillip G. Atwell

YEAR: 2007

COUNTRY: United States

War is a 2007 American thriller/police drama starring Jason Statham and Jet Li.  The premise is actually not very surprising as it follows that standard police drama stereotype: Good cop and his partner bust a major criminal (thief, murderer, gangster, but in this case an assassin) and as a result the partner and his family are killed. This causes the good cop’s life to be consumed with finding his partner’s killer, you know, the standard stereotypical bullshit. But that is where the simplicity of the plot ends, this plot is so convoluted with facial reconstruction nonsense, betrayals, and a major identity crisis, that the plot isn’t even interesting anymore.  Unless you pay some pretty close attention to the story, you will probably get lost.

The plot could have at least been interesting if the characters were interesting.  You would expect Jason Statham and Jet Li to put on some pretty decent performances, especially while they are trying to one up each other. I mean, it is old martial arts versus new martial arts in a sense. The whole reason many people saw this film was to see Statham and Li kick the shit out of each other. The sad thing is, once it actually got to the final confrontation between the two, I didn’t even care who killed who.  I was so detached from these characters that I had absolutely no interest left in the film after the scene below:

(This was like 30 min into the film)

The above scene was actually better than the climatic finish at the end. This is where Jet Li is switching sides and trying to bait Statham into a trap.  It is actually very entertaining.  The action was actually pretty decent, except for the climax. Statham and Li’s individual fight scenes were pretty brutal, Statham had a few bloody gun fights with the Yakuza and the Triads (lots of Statham shooting people in the side of the head). Li had an awesome sword fight with the head of the Triad in which he murders all of his henchmen then proceeds to pretty much flay bits of skin off of the Triad heads bones.

Overall, the action was decent, but the film was pretty much an anticlimactic waste of time.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-a2CFplrhQ]

Pros:

• Jason Statham and Jet Li’s fights scenes are individually awesome.
• The tone is very dark.
• Some decent violence.

Cons:

• The story is confusing.
• Jason Statham and Jet Li’s fight is quite anti-climatic.
• Mainly one dimensional characters.

SCORE: 5.5 / 10 Stars

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