By Leonardo Cervantes
It’s usually best to watch prequels in order to understand the story but Fistful of Vegenace’s plot is bland and doesn’t require much to understand the storyline. “Fistful of Vengeance” is an action movie and sequel of the series Wu Assassins.
The film is a 90-minute action sequence. It doesn’t have much depth. Just about every scene contains action and while the fighting styles and scenes are well executed it becomes dull after a while.
The stand-out actors include Kai Jin, played by Iko Uwais, Zama Zulu, played by Pearl Thusi, Tommy Wah, played by Lawrence Kao and William Pan, played by Jason Tobin. The opening scene sets a nice mood. It shows the beautiful Bangkok skyscrapers with “In The Air Tonight” by Nonpoint as background music. Jin, Lee and Tommy are in Bangkok seeking revenge for the murder of a friend and are set to fight off against the Chinese Triads. The film has a suspenseful start but sadly this was the strong point of the film as it quickly goes downhill after this.
The movie does work in some laughs in its run-time. One example that is when Lee breaks the fourth wall and compares him and his friend’s magic abilities to those of the Avengers. “We are like the Avengers, but Asian,” Lee said, as well as a mention of Baby Yoda.
The film contains a lot of characters with magic abilities that make the fights interesting. One character is able to stop time and control others’ bodies allowing him to interact with anybody even if he isn’t physically in the same room.
The fighting style that Jin uses imitates attacking his opponent’s chakra points leaving them unable to move. This allows him to deliver a final blow that evaporates his opponents into dust particles. There are a lot of creative fighting styles used with and without magic.
Although the film is overdone with action scenes, most if not all are enjoyable. Machetes, axes, metal chains, batons, guns and explosives are among the many items used in the film during fighting scenes.
The combination of martial arts and magical abilities makes for the perfect blend of nonstop action. Since the film contains so many action scenes, expect a lot of blood on screen, especially killings containing knives.
There is one intensely gruesome scene that might leave viewers disgusted. A few people are killed and their intestines are across the table filled with blood.
One memorable scene involves Jin and his friends being chased around Bangkok. This chase ends in a massive shootout and giant explosion while civilians run to safety.
The way the film transitions from fighting on foot, to a vehicle and on a boat is outstanding. The choreography is truly masterful. The film has a lot of nice up tempo beats and music along with some fast rap music like Eminem that fit the scenes well.
The build-up to the final act is predictable, but the final battle actually has a nice surprise and expands upon the Wu lore. If viewers want to enjoy some amazing fight sequences, an average storyline, average character development and world-building, this is the perfect movie to watch.
Rated TV-MA, the film runs one hour 36 minutes and is available to watch on Netflix