Warning: You open this gate at your own peril
THE latest from Luc Besson’s B-action-adventure factory owes a debt of gratitude to Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall for casting a long, obfuscating shadow for it to hide beneath, chiefly due to its Matt Damon-based whitewashing controversy. Unlike that film, which for better or worse had a plot that hinged on a foreign traveller in China, director Matthias Hoene’s The Warrior’s Gate truly does pivot on a “scrawny” white gamer saving a princess and ensuring peace for the Chinese realm. The $50 million (R669m) film is the first in EuropaCorp and Shanghai-based Fundamental Films’ three-pic co-production deal and is the latest East-West collaboration looking to cash in on the world’s (still) secondlargest film market.
Warrior’s Gate isn’t fooling anyone if its approximate $3m haul in China (ahead of Wall) is any indication. China’s rigid content code means the film is innocent enough to possibly find a YA audience (for YA audiences that are heavily into the 1980s) on the more youthful end of the spectrum in English-language markets as a DIRECTOR: Matthias Hoene CAST: Mark Chao, Ni Ni; Dave Bautista, Sienna Guillory, Uriah Shelton RUNNING TIME: 108 minutes CLASSIFICATION: 10 -12 PGV RATING: diverting, alternative trifle; Dave Bautista’s moderate star power may help. Beyond that, The Warrior’s Gate will fade into oblivion as yet another failed experiment.
Jack Bronson (Uriah Shelton of The Glades) is juggling his online gaming obsession, school bullies (naturally) and his mother Annie’s (Luther’s Sienna Guillory) money anxiety. On the verge of losing their house, Jack takes home an antique box from the shop where the kindly Mr. Chang has given him a parttime job, which, lo and behold, is a portal to a mysterious land. Believing Jack to be the Black Knight – his online gaming avatar (don’t ask, the movie doesn’t really explain how this happens) – imperial warrior Zhao (So Young’s Mark Chao) comes through with Princess Sulin (Ni Ni of Bride Wars) in tow. Before you can say “culture-clash romance”, Jack jumps into the portal and is transported to an anonymous place and time in ancient China.
From there the story wades into familiar territory, wherein the cowardly Jack, with his low self-esteem, is made brave and confident with martial help and wise words from Zhao and a chaste romance with Sulin. After somehow channelling his Black Knight alter ego and saving Sulin from a doomed marriage to the villainous Arun (Bautista) – despite the trained-sincebirth-to-protect-the-emperor-Zhao’s presence – Jack goes home and saves his mom, too.
There are few moments in Warrior’s Gate that seasoned viewers will not recognise for what they are the minute they happen.
As soon as we meet him we know Jack will exact some kind of revenge on his bully in the end; we know he’ll somehow save his home from foreclosure with his mad gaming skills; and we know he’ll teach the upright Sulin and the uptight Zhao to bend the rules from time to time.
The script is peppered with moderately amusing comic bits – Hong Kong veteran Francis Ng as Wizard Wu channelling Charles Nelson Reilly and Arun’s full title are high points – but the fish-out-of-water antics with Sulin at the mall and life lessons about avoiding personal challenges are purely cookiecutter filmmaking.
Technically, The Warrior’s Gate is up to snuff as a mid-budget actionfantasy, but director Hoene keeps things competent rather than creative, showing little of his Cockneys vs Zombies flair. – Hollywood Reporter