And this is the best example of what I found was the films biggest problem. I found action in the film as passable, it has the feeling of something like Crouching Tiger but suffers from the typical over-cutting we get from any big budget blockbuster which makes it hard to appreciate the choreography. Why did you leave your super important person with the guy? Especially when we watch you take down legions of men all on your own? Seems like a bit of a stupid move to me. So, when the princess is inevitably captured and the real adventure begins there is a conflict between our characters in which Zhoo calls Jack worthless. The film, despite its €20 million budget has made no shakes and with the love interest between Jack and Princess Su-Lin is intended for no more than a teen audience, limiting its appeal further.The main conflict in the film is also completely manufactured.Early on, when Jack first meets Zhoo, there is a scene in which Jack explains that he isn’t a warrior, but Zhoo leaves the princess with him anyway. Later a magician turns the sidekick into a giant goliath that young Jack must fight. One half decent running gag is Arun’s sidekick killing off the wrong person after orders from Arun. There is much so-so humour in Warriors’ Gate which for the most part mis-fires like the film itself. Here though, he looks more Mohawk than Chinese. Over the past couple of years Bautista is coming into his own with his Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson physique appearing in such films as the last James Bond film, Spectre (2015), Kickboxer: Vengeance (2016) and the two Guardians of the Galaxy films. One of the pluses the film has is the use of the latest action star, Dave Bautista playing the villain of the piece. The Chinese coming over to the modern West and picking up the dance sequences which become adopted in Medieval China at the end would be culturally insensitive were it not for the film being a Chinese co-production. Unfortunately the plot is an irritatingly annoying wish fulfillment fantasy. This is from the bike chase to the martial arts fight sequences, of which there are many. Co-written and co-produced by Luc Besson, this film is a French-Chinese co-production filmed in the USA and China and, as one would expect from a Besson film, the action is brilliantly handled. What the plot of this film says is that if you spend your days lazing away as a gamer, you too can aquire the skills to become a hero and save Princesses. There he must save the Princess and defeat the barbarians led by the strong and wicked Arun (Dave Bautista) with the help of her protector, Zhoo (Mark Chao) in order that the Princess’s rightful place on the throne can be restored. Jack passes her off to his mother and friends as a Chinese exchange student and dresses her in yoof dress, rather than a traditional Chinese princess costume. Other barbarians arrive to kill the Princess and trash his house before he leaps back to Princess Su-Lin’s time and place. She has come from a Medieval period and is curious with this new world she finds herself in. Among those others is a young Princess he must look after (Ni-Ni). Others arrive too and have come through a magical gateway in a pot given to him from a Chinese friend who works in a bric-a-brac shop. Jack realises he means the Black Knight in the game. One day fantasy becomes reality when he wakes up with a Chinese barbarian holding a sword to his throat and asking for the Black Knight. Jack also faces a gang of bullies at school and is able to out race them when they give him chase on mountain bikes. The viewer then realises that this is in fact a video game ‘operated’ by American high school teenager Jack (Uruah Shelton) who’s is playing against his overweight schoolfriend and neighbour. Suddenly power level percentages appear on the chests of the fighters with the hero character dropping down to 5% before he battles back and beats the assailant monster. A monster creature is also thrown into the fight. Released elsewhere as Enter the Warriors’ Gate (2016), this fantasy, martial arts, action comedy mash-up opens with a fantasy fight sequence between bulky ninjas fighting to save or kill a tied up Chinese princess. Disc Reviews Warriors’ Gate (2016) DVD Review
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