Proof you can do amazeballs fighting action and keep it all in focus.
Bad guys live in big residential tower. Cop-guys go in to raid the place. Bad guys set other bad guys to take cops out. Much fighting ensues. The plot is really not the strongest part of this film.
It is a gorgeously grungy building with a super lovely staircase. I was very impressed at the amount of film time taken to showing off this staircase in multiple ways. The cinematography is really lovely, shots are well composed and gritty, and the stillest of times. And there are some still times, for punctuation reasons.
But most of the time it is absolutely freaking full on super brutal martial arts style fighting. This is where this film really one me over. The levels of choreography in these fight scenes are above anything I have ever seen before. The intensity at which the characters are going at it hurts. The way the cameras keep in the action without it going "under the armpits" blurry is spectacular - you can really see every elbow, knee, stab etc. I mean I say you can see it, but it is still crazy-fast. But if you slowed it down so you could take it all in a bit more, it would be there, in gorgeous fight focus.
It starts quite heavy on the shooting, but then moves to hand-to-hand combat by the end. There are a lot of gruesome deaths on both sides. I found the narrative ending somewhat unfulfilling, but the visual ending was lovely enough.
For spectacular fight scenes alone,
J* gives it 4 stars.
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j* Movie Reviews 2019
HumorSpoilery recounts? Hilarious reviews? Serious takes? Just want to know what one female film reviewer who likes action thinks about the latest release? My collection of reviews from the releases of 2019.
