Fistful of Vengeance review: Netflix wraps up Wu Assassins with a gritty movie

The Netflix series will debut in 2019 Wu AssassinsThe show ended after one season. It was more sequel-bait than a true cliffhanger. Although some threads remained open, the show’s main story, pitting San Francisco chef Kai (Iko Uwais) and his friends against the elemental Wu Lords, reached an end. Wu AssassinsIt is flawed, with inconsistent writing and odd characters behavior. The series also struggles to create a compelling fantasy world. The charm and charisma of Byron Mann, Lewis Tan, Uwais are some of its strengths. Netflix has finally followed up with the series’ feature-length conclusion, The Fistful of Vengeance, which fully delivers on the series’ promise — at least in terms of quantity, if not quality.

Wu AssassinsKai is selected by the Dao, an ancient force, to be the Wu Assassin. This fighter, endowed with supernatural abilities, has the task of stopping the Wu Lords (Wu Lords) of Fire, Wood and Earth, Metal and Water. The action is bountiful and generally solid, with one caveat: Whenever the show leans too strongly on its supernatural elements, it loses the kinetic energy of Uwais’ fighting style, diluting it with intangible and unengaging CGI superpowers. The show is at its best when it lets the performers show off their skills, and its various directors — including The Dead Lands’ Toa Fraser, Tai Chi Hero’s Stephen Fung, and DTV actioners regular Roel Reiné — generally seemed to understand that.

Reiné returns to helm The Fistful of Vengeance, and he seems to have noticed the problem — the fantasy elements and special effects are less prominent this time around. As director, cinematographer, and camera/drone operator, Reiné fully commits to the role of making a film that works both as a series conclusion, and as a stand-alone film suitable for people who don’t know the series. Say goodbye to San Francisco’s Chinatown: The film opens in Bangkok, Thailand, where Kai, former stolen-car dealer Lu Xin (Tan), and former triad member Tommy (Lawrence Kao) are on a new quest for revenge.

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Almost immediately, they have to fight “Chi vampires” called Jiangshi — seemingly a modern take on the famous hopping vampires of Hong Kong and Chinese cinema. They soon discover that the plots of Ku An Qi (Yayaying Rhatha Phongam), are intertwined with their quest. Only God Can ForgivePan Gu (the first man) is a supernatural being that seeks to restore him and create a new world.

This basic premise — supernatural evil wants to activate supernatural power — is predictable and short on originality, but its simplicity gives the film a particularly swift pace that makes it an easy watch. As the heroes attempt to stop Ku, Preeya and Zama join the group. Fans of the series will recall Zan (JuJu Chen) as an impressive, fierce fighter. Once the story is set up, three major action setpieces make up most of the remaining runtime, a sign of the film’s lean, mean efficiency.

One of the fights takes place at a hotel with its adjacent parking garage. Here, the main characters are divided into smaller groups. It’s a perfect way to create contained, intense action, though the jumpy cuts back and forth between locations makes it hard to settle into the moment. It’s hard not to think of RaidOr We are all waiting for the nightUwais defends himself against two attackers using a narrow staircase. It is bloody and messy. The brutality of this action is not as relatable and palpable as in previous Uwais films. The loud, distracting songs that never fit the movie’s tone are a recurring problem, when discreet ambient music or even no music at all would support the action much better.

Of the original series’ characters, Tommy stands out the most in his evolution, going from a helpless loser to a driven, angry man on a mission. Kao is a strong leader and does a great job. While Tan and Uwais remain as magnetic as ever, they aren’t given much to do beyond the role of interchangeable kick-ass action stars. It’s a shame, knowing both actors’ capacity to breathe life into the most pedestrian scripts, as long as they’re given enough space to make the characters their own. Some regulars are not visible, such as Katheryn Winnick, who is never mentioned.

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Real character moments in life are very rare. The Fistful of Vengeance. Action movies often have to flesh out characters through the fight sequences, but Reiné is too focused on show-stopping spectacle to take that route. Preeya’s backstory is enough to provide her with some moments of emotion. Interpol agent Zama (the other new female ally to the group), has a history with Lu Xin and is rekindling their love story. While it’s barely sketched out and way too convenient, it’s still a welcome addition to the story — it allows for a bit of breathing space in a frenetic script, and Tan and Pearl Thusi use their combined charm to help sell it to the audience for the few fleeting moments when it matters.

The problems that plague the script by the last fight have made it a significant limitation. The writers abandon some major threads, bring some characters into scenes where they aren’t needed, and build up others in ways that never pay off. As in the TV series, heroes often treat basic questions regarding their situations as an afterthought. This makes it difficult to relate and understand the choices they make.

Reiné undeniably wants to give the audience the most generously action-packed film possible, with diverse setups and stunts by Uwais’ team and by Kawee Sirikanaerut, an industry vet who played a major role in some of the most memorable action scenes of the last 20 years, in films such as Ong-Bak, You were born to fight, The Protector, Rambo 4, Extraction, and 2021’s Kate. But while the stunts are suitably ambitious, Reiné’s direction often fails them. He has some worthy ideas about how to support action, including using an aerial shot to pan back and forth between two groups of fighters, to give viewers a clear idea of every group’s position in relation to the others in the sprawling building. But when Uwais tries his hand at a traditional one-vs.-many brawl, Reiné can’t escape the familiar problem of extras visibly waiting for their turn to attack and be defeated. Clever choreography or camera placement can help a movie dodge this problem, but Reiné just serves up a static medium-wide shot that captures every flaw.

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Reiné has made undeniable progress since the relative dullness of his late-’90s/early-2000s efforts, like DeliveryAnd Adrenaline. His contributions to the DTV-action market. The Marine 2And 2. Hard TargetHe has done a great job. He clearly wanted to improve his game. The Fistful of Vengeance. Kai fights multiple enemies in one take. With the camera moving between them, his ideas and ambitions culminate. Lewis Tan says that this scene was shot using an a bolt robot camera rigThe algorithm is designed to allow the performer to adjust their choreography according to it.

The camera movements inevitably become mechanical, and the fight looks like it’s riddled with digital transitions. The rig, however, gives the scene an unusual aesthetic. It is characterized by fits and stops. Although the fight is based on solid martial choreography and the style makes it hard to understand the flow of the action, the fighting scene feels very real.

This scene and the entire film were made with an incredible amount of imagination and work. Renié and his team set out to make The Fistful of VengeanceThis is an uncommonly grounded and raw action movie. The kind of film where the combatants prefer to hack at each others with machetes rather than fight with swords. The camera-rig experiment makes it impossible to adapt, improvise, or make human errors. It also leaves the fight feeling too prerecorded and lacks urgency. This movie could have been a great martial-arts film if it was made by a better filmmaker. In Reiné’s, it’s the kind of thing that plays well as an evening’s diversion on Netflix, but doesn’t ever rise above the level of “just another good mid-tier actioner.”

The Fistful of Vengeance Netflix now has it streaming.