Brief Story Line
Poon Sing-fung (Andy Lau - Chasing the Dragon, Saving Mr. Wu etc) was a member of the Hong Kong Bomb Disposal squad who was close with his partner Tung Cheuk-man (Sean Lau - The Bullet Vanishes, Overheard etc). However, Fung had to retire early due to some reasons which also made him broke his relationship with Pong Ling (Ni Ni - The Warriors Gate, The Thousand Faces of Dunjia etc), the Chief Inspector of Counter Terrorism unit.
When a series of bombing rocked Hong Kong. suspected to be done by a group called Vendetta led by Maverick (Tse Kwan-ho - Legend of Awakenings TV series etc), Fung somehow became the main suspect. Soon he was targeted by the police led by Chief Lee (Philip Keung - Dynasty Warriors etc).
So what would happen to Fung? Find them all in this awesome action movie.
End of Brief Story Line
When I heard there would be a sequel to Shock Wave, I was quite excited since I liked that first movie. So obviously I had to watch this one as soon as it is available. It so happened that it premiered on this cable TV channel last night. Anyway, I soon realized when I watch the film that despite the title, this one was not having any relations with the first movie. Hence it's considered as a stand-alone sequel, where it has different character and story. The only connection was it was showing the elite Explosive Ordinance Disposal Bureau (EODB) unit, plus a series of bombing in Hong Kong.
Now this movie had a great opening with some intriguing plot and a nice introduction of the characters. The first 15 minutes was just amazing and fantastic to watch. Then the story suddenly became very serious and the action sequence were also felt quite nonstop. I really love the story telling of this movie where the flash backs were done very smoothly and gave a sense of understanding in a very easy manner. Plus there was some surprising twists which were great as well.
I really applauded Andy Lau who continued to show how fit he is in his age with some cool action sequence and showing his acting maturity as well. Btw, he was also one of the producers. This movie was directed by Herman Yau who also directed the first movie with other quite successful hits like The White Storm 2: Drug Lords, 77 Heartbreaks etc. I think his directing style suit the story nicely here. The visual effects were great in some scenes but one or two were not too good as the CGI were a bit too obvious, but in general it was quite satisfying, especially when it involved Fung's physique.
The distinct difference I noticed between this film and the first one was the tone. While the first felt a lot of drama especially involving the various characters in it and having quite a number of emotional moments, the second movie focused a lot on the action. And frankly I was amazed by the actions, from the gun fight, chasing and the ultimate finale which was absolutely brilliant. The suspense and intensity were felt throughout the movie which has duration of 2 hours. The ending was wonderful and I thought was perfect, especially with that final scene. Oh there was no mid or post end credit scene, but it was worth it to watch as we would be accompanied by a lovely song titled Believe Me, sung by Andy Lau and Ni Ni themselves. It felt a bit like And Lau's older hit songs. I originally wanted to put the link to the music video here, but once I watched the official one, I felt it revealed too much information. So I would suggest to postpone watching it till you have seen the film, unless you do not really care about spoiler.
Overall I was really satisfied watching the movie. It really made my day and I would gladly recommend it for people who want to see some good actions and a bit of drama with few twists and decent enough special effects. Fans of Andy Lau would have loved this one as I said earlier, it once again showed his maturity in acting and still manage to pull of some amazing stunts. If you have seen the first movie, do not hesitate to watch this one, even if it has completely different characters & story line.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment