The Four 3 (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): An attempt to assassinate the Emperor (Alec Su) fails, but he is forced to go into hiding because bad guy Lord An (Yu Cheng Hui) has convinced the palace guards that the emperor is an impostor. Lord An has also gained the support of Ji Yao Hua (Jiang Yi Yan), the head of Department Six - the larger of the Emperor's two police units.

The Emperor knows that he can trust only Zhuge Zheng Wo (Anthony Wong), who heads the Emperor's other police unit called the Divine Constabulary. The Divine Constabulary consists of the eponymous Four who have various supernatural abilities - crippled psychic Emotionless (Crystal Liu Yi Fei), Iron Hands (Collin Chou), Cold Blood (Deng Chao) and Life Stealer (Ronald Cheng).

Emotionless had left the Divine Constabulary after finding out that the Emperor had ordered the death of her father (framed as a traitor). However she is at the Divine Constabulary when the Emperor goes there to hide.

She captures the Emperor and tries to build up the resolve to kill him to avenge her father's death. Before she can do so, they are attacked by Lord An's ninjas (this is a Chinese movie, but they dress and fight like ninjas). The rest of the Divine Constabulary rescues them and they all are now on the run from Lord An's men.

Some adventures later, they confront Lord An and his co-conspirators in the Emperor's palace and an epic fight breaks out.

***

The Four 3 is the last movie in The Four trilogy. It is an entertaining but unremarkable wu shu action movie. Gordon Chan directed all three movies, lending some continuity to the series.

It's possible to enjoy this third movie without having seen the earlier two movies. In the third movie you'll find some dude who is fused to a tree, and a shape-shifting assassin. Just accept them as part of the story. You don't need to know who they are.

While I did enjoy the first movie, I actually walked out of the second movie after about 20 minutes. It was slow and boring and I was also suffering from lack of sleep. This third movie is better than the second, but perhaps a bit less enjoyable than the first.

The first movie was mainly about the hot/cold romance between Emotionless and Cold Blood, this third movie is more about Emotionless's desire to avenge her father's death. The other 3 members of The Four don't get much character development. Considering how stunning Crystal Liu looks here, I have no complaints.

The plot is sufficient to propel the story forward at a fast pace, which helps to keep you entertained. Aside from the lack of character development, my main complaint is actually about the movie's lighting. I'm probably more interested in lighting than the average movie buff, but I'm not that much of a lighting geek.

The lighting here is distracting because it looks fake. Not just fake, but electric. In the library and dungeon scenes, the light looks like it is coming from recessed ceiling lights (there are no open flames or lanterns in sight) - not something you can do with candles or lanterns. The lighting is also always steady, no sign of flicker from flames, even when the main light is ostensibly a flickering flame right in the center of the room. And there's blue light coming from god-knows where.

Taken together, this makes the movie look like it was filmed on a TV set. Other kung fu movies, including the first The Four movie, might have similar lighting. I can't remember. All I know is that I noticed the incongruity in this movie.

Other gripes - the emperor is not regal at all. He lacks the self confidence to be a believable emperor. Leaving his kidnapper unpunished, peasants talking trash to him - not likely. And his idea of going out into the city to see what his people really think about him? No, no disguise for him. He floats around in the royal barge, his arrival loudly announced by his eunuch.

Superpowers? You see precious little from The Four. The main superpowers come from Zhuge Zheng Wo, who fights with cartoonish colored swirls of magical energy.

Pacing is fast, so all is not lost. The Four 3 is a reasonable way to kill some time, but is in no way unmissable.

The Giver (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): In the future, a small society lives in peaceful isolation atop a mountain plateau. There is no war, crime or even bad behavior. This is partly maintained by having everyone receive a daily injection of medicine that mutes their emotions. Drones patrol the skies, looking out for misbehavior. A council of Elders makes decisions for everyone. Including what clothes they wear, what time they have to be at home, their occupation and whether or not they receive babies.

Teenager Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) is assigned to be the new Keeper of Memories at his coming-of-age ceremony. Unlike everyone else, he will be exposed to Earth's rich, wonderful, and violent history; so that he can advise the Elders. He receives one-on-one training from The Giver (Jeff Bridges).

Alternately delighted, shocked and overwhelmed by the history of mankind, he illegally shares his knowledge of fun with friend Fiona (Odeya Rush) and sister Lilly (Emma Tremblay). This worries his father (Alexander Skarsgård), mother (a no longer baby-faced Katie Holmes), and Chief Elder (Meryl Streep).

Jonas then realizes the horrific truth behind his ostensibly peaceful society, and decides to leave.

***

The Giver is a decent but unremarkable mix of THX-1138 (medicated, docile population) and Pleasantville (young rebel brings emotions to repressed Stepford Wives society). You can also throw in Logan's Run - secret euthanasia, and a reverse of The Village - high tech instead low tech road to paradise. Unfortunately The Giver is inferior to all of these movies.

Its plot is linear, with no major surprises - you can pretty much guess what is going to happen next, including the ending. Worse, its futuristic society is badly thought out and does not withstand serious scrutiny.

Based on the Young Adult novel by Lois Lowry, the movie has a target teen audience that probably won't mind. But it lacks the star power and action of Hunger Games or even Divergent. It probably isn't going to pull in much of a crowd. I have seen zero marketing for it. The first I heard of it was when a friend recommended it to me. Looks like the Weinstein Company isn't betting heavily on it.

The Giver's schmaltzy emotionalism and shallow social commentary is worthy of Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, The Host) but lacks Niccol's refined touch and glossy visuals. It looks more like a TV movie.

The cast is not the problem, with Brenton Thwaites and Odeya Rush looking good on screen and managing to gain the audience's sympathy. Jeff Bridges is convincing as the troubled, gentle and wise Giver. It's the sort of role he can play in his sleep. Meryl Streep is a bit understated as the evil Chief Elder, but then she usually is.

Verisimilitude and the voluntary suspension of disbelief, are big deals to me. The Giver fails in this because little thought was spent on designing a realistic scenario for its future society.

It falls into the common science fiction trap of having all sorts of cool futuristic gadgets, but lacks a population that is large enough to sustain the industries necessary to produce them. From the aerial shot of the settlement, there are at most 100,000 people (probably closer to 10,000) living in isolation. Yet they have electric bikes, drones, holographic projectors, solar panels - all the normal cliches of a futuristic society.

They also live in seemingly self-sufficient economic autarky, not needing to trade with anyone for raw materials or food.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Okay, let's accept the society as a given. Even then, the plot is full of holes. Why does passing the Border of Memory, automatically zap people with emotions and mankind's lost memories? Especially since they are still on medication? Why haven't any outsiders ventured into the border, or even right up to the settlement?

The best stories work because they are believable. Force-fitting a morality play onto an arbitrary science fiction future world isn't going to cut it. Director Phillip Noyce (Salt, Patriot Games, Rabbit-Proof Fence) should have passed on the script.

Lucy (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): White trash Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is living in Taipei. She is forced to become a drug mule (smuggler) and ends up being overdosed with the new experimental drug that was sewn into her stomach.

The drug gives her extraordinary mental and physical powers, including telekinesis and Jedi mind-tricks. She uses her new powers to exact revenge on the Korean criminals, led by Mr. Jang (Min-sik Choi), who forced her to become their drug mule.

She tracks down the world expert on brain enhancement - Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman) - in Paris, and arranges for the French police to intercept the other drug mules and bring their packets of drugs to Paris. This is because she needs more of the drugs to further enhance her powers.

Mr. Jang comes to Paris and a massive fight breaks out between his thugs, Lucy, and the Paris police.

***

Lucy is an odd mix of action-adventure, noir (doomed, poisoned protagonist) and science fiction. It's entertaining enough but is technically unconvincing, causing writer/director Luc Besson's reach to exceed his grasp.

At least with Luc Besson, you know that you're not going to get some unoriginal run-of-the-mill by-the-numbers actioneer.

The movie starts off promisingly enough. Luc Besson has always been good with introductions and this one is a doozy. I won't spoil it for you by revealing any details here.

However it begins to go off the rails when Lucy magically develops superpowers such as telekinesis, and medical diagnosis skills out of thin air (she doesn't do any reading or research before being able to diagnose a terminal patient from his x-rays alone).

Verisimilitude and the voluntary suspension of disbelief, are critical for getting the audience to buy into a story. Luc Besson usually aces it but he should stay away from science fiction (Fifth Element was science fantasy). He does not have the technical judgment to pull it off.

But wait, there's more! Lucy conveniently leaves the bad guys alive after disabling them, so that they can stick around for the final confrontation. It's not like she is squeamish about killing. She cold-bloodedly kills the Chinese criminals who held her captive.

So there goes the remaining bits of the audience's voluntary suspension of disbelief. And to make sure it is fully gone, Luc Besson stomps on it even more. Lucy can control people's mind, like a Jedi, but doesn't use it to disable the bad guys (don't give me that only works on the weak-minded crap). She can also telepathically knock them unconscious, levitate them in the air, but she doesn't lift a finger to help the police who are protecting her from the bad guys. So there's a massive gunfight at the end of the movie, which she could have easily won single-handedly.

And to top it all off, the movie's basic premise, that humans use only 10 percent of their brain, is flat out wrong. There are other objections - the fossil Lucy was not the world's first woman, only the earliest known fossil - but I don't want to go on like some geek. (Lucy sees radio waves, and can send TV signals from Taipei to Paris using her brainpower alone.)

Stylistically, the movie is flawed too. The cuts to documentary footage (we see a cheetah stalking its prey when Lucy is being cornered by the bad guys) are clunky and throw you out of the movie.

In other visuals, Luc Besson seems to being paying homages to Akira (organic quick-grow tentacles), The Time Machine (it's obvious when you see it), Kick-Ass (camera work showing the armed thugs in the passageway), The Matrix (white room), and I-kid-you-not Star Wars (bad guy shoots at Lucy but she disappears, leaving her empty clothes behind). Heck, I'd even throw 2001: A Space Odyssey into the mix (evolution of man into a super being). It's all very distracting.

All in all, I'd consider this an honorable failure.

The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom (2014)

Plot summary (story synopsis): Zhuo Yihang (Xiaoming Huang - Wolf in The Guillotines) is promoted to head of Wu Dang (Shaolin-equivalent kung fu sect). He goes to deliver the customary Wu Dang red pills to the emperor. Along the way, he has a brief encounter with the mysterious Jade Raksha (Fan Bing Bing - Blink in X-Men: Days of Future Past).

Jade Raksha is part of the gang of irregulars that holds Lunar Fort, a small but strategic border outpost that controls a mountainous trail between the Han (Chinese) and Jin armies.

Traitorous general Jin Duyi (Vincent Zhao) kills the Governor (who is also Zhuo Yihang's grandfather) during a skirmish with Jade Raksha, and frames her for the murder.

Meanwhile, the red pills turn out to be poisonous and Zhuo Yihang is blamed for the emperor's death. He ends up in Lunar Fort, where he uses his medicinal skills to stop a typhoid outbreak, furthering his friendship with Jade Raksha along the way.

Some political intrigues later, Jin Duyi takes over Lunar Fort by treachery and holds Zhuo Yihang prisoner. Jade Raksha comes to his rescue but is captured too. There is a spell she can cast to break free, but only at a terrible personal cost.

***

Chinese movies are like a box of chocolates. With WHWLK, what you get is an odd mix of political intrigue, action-adventure and romance. The first two thirds of the movie is a disjointed mix of events that aren't really interesting, convincing, or integrated well with each other.

It's only in the third act, the fight at Lunar Fort, that the movie finally gets into gear. But it's too little, too late. It doesn't help that Lunar Fort itself, looks like a cheap stage set.

There are some interesting details of imperial Chinese customs - the red pills, "top scholar cookies" from the chief eunuch. But without an engrossing plot, these stand out more as curiosities and don't really make you feel like you are stepping into ancient China.

The wirework flying kung fu and slashing sword fights are okay, I guess. Quite standard, not too shabby, but not particularly outstanding either. There are battle scenes with hundreds of armored infantry, that do help to establish an epic scope, but what we are really interested in is the relationship between Zhuo Yihang and Jade Raksha, and there's precious little of that.

Acting is decent, given the limitations of the script. I'm not a Fan Bing Bing fan but she looks pretty good here.

Most reviewers seem to prefer Ronny Yu's 1993 version, The Bride With White Hair, which starred Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung. I haven't seen that movie.

If you want to watch a Chinese kung fu historical romance, I'd suggest 2012's Painted Skin: The Resurrection, instead. (http://pisang-movie-recommendations.blogspot.com/2012/07/painted-skin-resurrection-2012.html)