Movie Digest
Qin Guoli is working as an accountant in Great Britain. One day he is contacted by Maasym, the leader of a terrorist organization called Brothers of Vengeance. The man wants him to give him money for his illegal operations. Unwilling to aid the terrorist, Qin blows the whistle on Maasym to Scotland Yard.
US military dispatches an operation in which Maasym is killed. Unfortunately for Qin, Maasym’s son Omar has survived. He wants to know about the whereabouts of his father’s money and Qin knows where it is. Omar hires a group of mercenaries, who call themselves Arctic Wolves, to kidnap Qin and his new wife Meiwei when they visit the London Chinatown’s Chinese New Year festival.
To rescue them, another operation is dispatched. This time it is an international security company, called Vanguard. The commander of Vanguard is Tang Huanting. He sends agents Mi Ya, Zhang Kaixuan, and Lei Zhenyu. The operation is successful, and on returning, Qin begs Tang Huanting to protect his daughter, Fareeda, who is currently working as a wildlife preservation activist in Africa. To get to the wealth, Omar is likely to use Fareeda to threaten him.
The agents of Vanguard are immediately sent off in an urgent, risky operation to protect Fareeda and capture Omar.
The Feel-Good Part
The only good things about this film are the action sequences, and that too when they are performed by actual people. After that, there is nothing of value.
In-Depth Analysis
The plot was okayish, but it lacked any flair. The characters were not interesting. It is a waste of Jackie Chan’s natural charisma, who has to play a “tough guy” with irritating repetition.
The movie tries a little too much to set up the characters as intimidating. The Arctic Wolves are supposedly the deadliest mercenary group in the world, but they fail in having any such presence to the audience or living up to their name.
The saviors in the film, ironically, can’t save the film either. There is this unnatural, self-righteous attitude about them that immediately makes you wish for them to fail in whatever venture they are tasked with.
One of the worse aspects of this film is the factual errors. There is a horrible dearth of freshwater in Africa, yet there is a sequence where you see a car chase occur through jugs of distilled water. And you really question Fareeda’s ability as a wildlife conservationist when she calls for a male African lion to cuddle with and whether it is worth the effort to save her.
And if you look at the agents of Vanguard, save for their leader, you ask why are they practically glowing when they have such a stressful job on their hands. The average salary woman/ salaryman ages by ten years five years after they enter the workforce. Imagine what that does to a person working in defense.
The Disappointing Factor
The film is badly made. CGI is used rather too much, even in places where it was unnecessary. It takes away good points from the action sequences, which were the only things to look forward to.
The dubbing is terrible. It was forgiven in the 60s Chinese cinema, but in 2020, it is simply not acceptable.
Star Power
It is hard to say if the actors could have saved the film. Prominent names like Jackie Chan, Jackson Lou, Mia Muqi, and Yang Yang are in this film, and they even try their best, but they are unable to save what can only be surmised as a train wreck of a film.
Overall Opinion
The film is not worth it. It has no redeeming qualities, save for the action sequences, which again don’t merit wasting one hour and forty-eight minutes. You can watch the same amount of time watching cats slapping each other and still find that more interesting.
