The Four Reviews

Apparently, it takes two to direct The Four; however, both Gordan Chan and Janet Chun can't put together a masterpiece of any kind.For an investigative type of story, The Four requires attention to keep from getting lost. It isn't so much for the twists and turns, but more because of the less than stellar storytelling. From the get go, there are a number of characters to keep track of and there aren't enough plot details to help along the way. Things do eventually stabilize though.Regarding the characters in this picture, the action becomes a bit of letdown. It has its moments, but there is definitely room for more. The use of CG is also decent, with maybe a little overuse.Deng Chao's flat performance and character hurts this film a lot. Thankfully, Ronald Cheng is there to liven things up. Yifei Liu also ends up with an emotionless character, but she is more tolerable than Deng Chao. Besides, she ends up with the best fight of the picture.The Four isn't a bad film by any means. It does have its disappointments, but it also has a good enough story, characters, and action.

CSI mixed with X-Men type of movie. Didn't work.

The idea of imitating X-Men in a Chinese wuxia context is interesting enough, but the lackluster storytelling and the wrong focus on the confusing and weepy "love triangle" (instead of each character, which desperately need background build-up and personality differentiation) almost killed the film for good. Hope the sequel will be better, which is not a difficult task considering the quality of the its predecessor :))

Ostensibly adapted from a wuxia novel, this is really an obvious attempt by HK's Gordon Chan to make a Chinese version of X-Men. While visually it delivers, the storytelling is sloppy, with a narrative that is neither credible nor engaging. This is a pity as it had the potential to be more than just the mildly pleasant, vacuous film experience it ended up being.