Silver Hawk (2004)

AKA: Silverhawk

Director: Jingle Ma

Producer: Thomas Chung, Michelle Yeoh, Gao Feng-Jun

Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Richie Ren, Luke Goss, Brandon Chang (Cheung Cheuk-Nam), Lee Bing-Bing, Kouichi Iwaki, Michael Jai White, Chan Da-Ming 

Running Time: 110 min.

Plot: See review below.

Availability: This title is available at HKflix.com

RAGING GAIJIN'S REVIEW: Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Jingle Ma's previous directing efforts have always been corny (see "Hot War" and "Tokyo Raiders") but at least they entertained and seemed to breeze by with a nearly effortless charm. Unfortunately, "Silver hawk", his 2004 collaboration with Michelle Yeoh, is a near unforgivable mess that even some of Yeoh's most ardent fans may not be able to sit through. 

The film is ostensibly meant to be a high-concept superhero flick, sort of like a female counterpart to Jet Li's "Black Mask", but the execution is laughable at best. Michelle Yeoh has charted this territory before in Johnnie To's "The Heroic Trio" and its sequel, two movies that have since become cult classics. But where those movies drew from the gothic styling of Tim Burton's "Batman", "Silver Hawk" seems more inspired by Joel Schumacher. The actual character of Silver Hawk is a supermodel by day, masked vigilante by night. As if that isn't hokey enough in itself, Silver Hawk's costume looks ridiculous, and her exaggerated sci-fi world is populated by cartoony characters and villains who seem to have stepped out of an episode of the Power Rangers or some bargain-bin anime. 

Jingle Ma is usually a competent filmmaker, but here his direction is so stylish that it's distracting at best, and annoying at worst. The fight-scenes are so overly choreographed that there's no fluidity or excitement to them, not to mention the fact that they are marred by the kind of excessive slow motion and obvious wirework that has been used and abused in nearly every post-"Matrix" action flick. It feels like a good chunk of the film's 110-minute running time is due solely to the countless sequences of Michelle Yeoh leaping or flipping through the air in slow motion. 

There's no doubt that Michelle Yeoh looks great for her age. She has a sort of timeless beauty and grace; besides that, she has endeared herself to action fans around the world through countless kick-butt roles. But "Silver Hawk" is not the best way to reward those fans. As cool as Yeoh is, it's hard for her to maintain her dignity when she's squealing and giggling like a teenage girl. This kind of youthful "enthusiasm" (if that's the right word) just doesn't befit Yeoh or the role of a motorcycle-riding super heroine. Some of Yeoh's scenes in "Silver Hawk" are just downright embarrassing. You know you're in trouble when the best actors in the movie are the kids who play the child versions of the characters. 

That said, there is a time and a place for this kind of film. That's right, "Silver Hawk" might just fall under the category of 'so bad, it's good'. After the first painfully slow and directionless twenty minutes, the film picks up speed when the villains are introduced, including Michael Jai White of "Spawn" and "Universal Soldiers 2" fame. Particularly memorable is lead baddie Luke Goss, a fascist pig with robotic arms. He's memorable because÷well, robotic arms kick ass. In addition, Jingle Ma continually tosses new locations and set pieces at the audience so that there's always some kind of visual stimulus onscreen. And a sequence of Michelle Yeoh battling Goss' goons as they drop from the ceiling on bungee cords is one of the most stupendously cheesy and unintentionally hilarious things I've seen in a long time. 

"Silver Hawk" is weighted down by Michelle Yeoh's miscalculated performance, Jingle Ma's overblown direction, a paper-thin plot, and a mood so campy it makes George Clooney's Bat-Nipples seem noir. Nearly all these things are unforgivable but, at the end of the day, it's hard to hold a grudge. Michelle Yeoh is more or less the queen of Hong Kong action movies and if she wants to do a shameless vanity project like this, she has the right. The film has its entertaining moments and its agonizingly stupid ones, but it's got enough CGI-infused eye candy to keep the viewer awake. Make no mistake: this is a bad movie. But "Silver Hawk" is big, dumb fun and sometimes you need some big, dumb fun. I'm giving the film a neutral score but you can easily add or subtract a half a point÷depending on your tolerance for things that are big and dumb. 

RAGING GAIJIN'S RATING: 5.5/10