WOLF WARRIOR 2

WOLF WARRIOR 2 is a violent, action-packed story of a disgraced military man who becomes China’s only hope in extraditing Chinese citizens from an African civil war. A runaway box-office hit worldwide, WOLF WARRIOR 2 is a non-stop thrill ride that would please fans of B-level action movies. The movie is even more action packed than its predecessor, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. Graphic and intense scenes of wartime violence bombard the audience with little respite, without much character or story to back it up.

The movie opens with an impressive underwater action sequence revealing the unmatched skills of the protagonist, Leng Feng, who lives a quiet life in Africa after being stripped of his military rank. He spends his days looking for the manufacturer of the rare bullet that killed his girlfriend. His hunt gets sidetracked when sadistic rebels invade the country in a barrage of gunfire and violence, killing many innocent women and children. Leng Feng and a young boy in his care flee to the Chinese Embassy, which is the only safe place in the nation. There he learns that the rebels are looking for Dr. Chen, a Chinese doctor with valuable information. They are also targeting a Chinese factory somewhere within the country. Since the African nation has not invited the Chinese military to interfere, the Chinese government sends Leng Feng in alone to rescue the doctor and get the Chinese factory workers out of the country alive.

Throughout the movie, Leng Feng fights rebel after rebel in car chases, knife fights, gunfire, and tank battles as he teams up with Dr. Rachael Smith to save Dr. Chen’s daughter and all the factory workers. He and Rachael are unharmed by rebels and want to keep the Chinese alive, but when a hired rebel mercenary named Big Daddy goes rogue and targets the factory for destruction, no one is safe until Leng Feng saves the day.

With record-breaking box office success in China, WOLF WARRIOR 2 provides enough entertainment to keep audiences engaged, if not entertained. The stakes are very high throughout the movie, as Leng Feng encounters roadblock after roadblock to achieve his goal. He constantly must find new and interesting ways to fight his enemy, whether it’s a car chase, stopping a grenade using nothing but a mattress, commandeering a tank, or brutal hand-to-hand combat. Even though the set pieces change, the action gets tiring. Even though the opening scene is a highly choreographed, with original underwater fight scenes with impressive camerawork, every other fight scene is simply a barrage of bullets and explosions mixed with some hand-to-hand combat. These exceptionally violent scenes will either wear at the viewer, or worse, leave them numb to the horror of the depiction of innocent lives lost in favor of cool action scenes.

The story of WOLF WARRIOR 2 leaves much to be desired. Full of plot-holes and narrow escapes, it ultimately suffers from style over substance. The movie seems to be focused on delivering action thrills, and a very overt pro-China message. The movie never misses a chance to highlight China as a superpower, especially in comparison to the United States. While some of these points are integral to the plot, at other times it seems the filmmakers are going out of their way to make a political statement. Even the tagline of the movie reads, “Anyone who offends China will be killed, no matter how far the target is.” This type of messaging has certainly drawn in crowds in China, but much of the fanfare gets lost in translation for American audiences, especially a particular scene in which Feng Leng insults the American Marines in favor of the People’s Liberation Army.

Even though WOLF WARRIOR 2 is making waves at the worldwide box office, it ultimately doesn’t deliver a worthwhile movie. While it keeps audiences on their toes, it is bogged down with forced scenes of Chinese nationalism, shallow character development and brutal violence.