Silver Hawk

source: Silver Hawk

Recap: Mystic heroine Silver Hawk is both a terror for the criminals but also sought by the police. Now Rich Man is brought to Polaris to finally bring her before justice. What he hadn't counted on was her massive fan support and what he don't know is that the young famous Lulu, who he tried to impress on the flight in, is really our heroine, and that she got more tricks up her sleeve than he can count. But the peace isn't going to last. First a known scientist, specialized in AI, is kidnapped under their noses, and then the daughter of powerful industrialist, and personal friend of Lulu, is kidnapped as well. A known terrorist is behind the scheme and plans to take over and rule the world with the aid of our cellular phones. Can Silver Hawk stop him? Comments: Oh this is just plain silly. In fact, it resembles most a child's fantasy of a child that grows up to become beautiful, rich and the mystic heroine that toys with her opponents. There is absolutely no suspense, the story is thin like paper, the one-liners silly and the taunts and showing off during fights abundant. Well, the fights are abundant too, and actually there are some nice fights, if you like those choreographed dances/fights. Other than that, there isn't much to hope for... Entertainment for a rainy, dark and dull fall afternoon, nothing more. 5/10

AKA: SILVER HAWK The only highlight to this movie was the visuals. The story is nothing new, the acting is only adequate, and the direction seems to lack the ability to decide just what it wants to be. This seems to be an ill-fated remake of I, Robot one moment, and a martial arts movie the next. The effects are good, but the martial arts elements are heavily overdone, as are the performances. Were it not for the technology featured herein, this work could easily have been made in the 1970's. Honestly, the content quality isn't much better than that. I wasn't expecting much, and it's a good thing. If you expect anything more than mild enjoyment, you could be severely disappointed. And the visuals? They are good, but not great. You could definitely profit from finding something more useful to do with your time. This can go completely unnoticed, and we wouldn't miss a thing. It rates a 3.7/10 from... the Fiend :.

In the 90s, you could often see American martial arts films being influenced by Hong Kong action cinema. But these days, it seems that this trend has been reversed, and now we have Hong Kong movies trying too hard to be like Hollywood. From the fight scenes, which suffer from too much fast cutting, too much CGI, too much imitation-Matrix style, to the outrunning-the-explosion finale, "Silver Hawk" is one such movie. However, there are still a few glimpses of the old-times HK brilliance to be found, and the film certainly scores in the eye-candy department: Michelle Yeoh looks dazzling (if a little too made-up at times), Bing Bing Li (appearing each time with a different hair color, but always in a mini-skirt - thank God!) is easily one of the hottest bad chicks of the current decade, and there is also a female police officer (with a very limited role) who is simply gorgeous. In fact, I would go so far as to say that EVERY girl in this movie is pure beauty. But the film as a whole is not as entertaining or action-packed as "Black Mask 2", in which the computer effects are also more justified by the mutated heroes' superpowers. Watch that one first. (**)

I've been looking forward to this for over a year, and it's region 2 DVD release finally came a week or so ago. It's an Asian take on the traditional superhero movie, with Michelle Yeoh as a Batman-esquire crimefighter. Of course, there is also more emphasis on martial arts. And although it's Asian, all the actors speak English. The Good points... The action scenes. Great martial arts, all sorts of different weapons and situations, all number of different fighters, and the actors all know how to fight properly. You know the problem with modern action movies is the too-fast editing? Silver Hawk gets that just right, so you can see exactly what is happening in one shot, but no more than that, and then it changes. It's perfect. There is a fight on top of a moving truck, a fight with men on bungee cords from the ceiling, and a fight with guys on rollerblades with hockey sticks. This shows Batman & Robin how it's done - but Christopher Nolan could learn a lot from it too. The music. Surprisingly good and lush sounding. Silver Hawk's background. Her history is told in flashbacks throughout the film, Highlander style. It's simple but effective, nicely creating the relationship between the two principal characters as children at martial arts school. The Bad points. The actors speak English. This is not as bad as dubbing, but it's very obvious some of the actors don't speak English whatsoever. Comedy. Very, very bad. And even Silver Hawk is messing around and making jokes by the end. One of the characters has a very bizarre, supposedly funny martial arts stance with a weird noise he makes, and we're shown this repeatedly, much to the audience's dismay and embarrassment. Tone. Silver Hawk is good when it's serious, it's dramatic and exciting. Silver Hawk is no way near invincible, and she has to escape from the bad guys at one point. But then we have jokes and Silver Hawk smiling during the climactic fight. There is a silly scene where the main police officer tries to catch Silver Hawk - by dressing as a woman. And then they have a fight. Which is taken seriously. Silver Hawk is only good when it's serious, and that's only for the last thirty minutes. The bad guys. Michael Jai White (Spawn) and Luke Goss (Blade II) are wasted on very 2D cartoon characters. They are decent for a fight, but White doesn't even talk, and Goss plays an English Blofeld with bionic arms. Finally, Michelle Yeoh as Silver Hawk is debatable. No question she has the charisma, as well as the physical and actorly skills to pull off the role. But she is much too old for the role, as Silver Hawk seems to be about thirty in the narrative. So my verdict on Silver Hawk is......meh. It's entertaining enough, and the action scenes are exactly what you wanted to see but didn't in all those Batman/Catwoman/Daredevil movies. But it's just not serious enough to take seriously most of the time. Of course it's much better than Supergirl (1984) or Catwoman (2004), it's a solid 7 out of 10 movie, which makes it the best female superhero movie so far. A dubious honor.

This is the typical Asian Martial Arts cookie cutter movie with a female crime fighter spin. The bad guys are very stereotyped "world domination" megalomaniacs. As this movie opens we see the super hero chase down "bad guys" in a semi for unknown reasons. I was thinking drugs, stolen art, jewels, maybe even bananas? No a panda bear! OK and by mid-movie I am wondering where the Power Rangers are and why they must pose and vogue during each and every fight sequence. Team Rocket from the cartoon series Pokemon showed up but they failed to do their motto. This movie is better than most Kung-Fu pictures especially the ones made in the 1970's. But I would not buy it or pay a lot to watch it, the rental was only 50 cents. But I like the one fight scene where the Incredible Bungie Men attack. This movie was definitely worth the 50 cents.

Silver Hawk is such a great movie, not overly dramatic or drudged up with too much blood or sex. In fact I don't remember seeing any of either. Michelle Yeoh is so cute and smart and funny, it's not dumb fun but it's so great to see a character who actually has lots of fun kicking butt, something which is usually seen as burdensome and depressing by most superheroes in movies and comics nowadays. Don't listen to anyone who says Michelle Yeoh is too old for this role, she doesn't look her age at all and she could've fooled me! I hate it when people think forty is over the hill, they are gravely mistaken; I think it's more of a sign of maturity and talent than the overpaid up-and-coming sluts on our silver screens today. The character is original, the costume is beautiful and not at all immodest. The music is just right and we are finally allowed the luxury of enjoying the fight scenes, totally real, beautifully choreographed and filmed so we can see it without getting a headache or feeling ripped off with up too close choppy filming. I think some of the voices are dubbed over but it doesn't bother me at all, they're all English speaking anyways. The bad guy isn't the most sinister, but he's bad enough for me, it's been so long since we've seen a villain with the classic motives of world domination and a viable method of doing so. Bad guys and superheroes don't have to be overdramatized for me to be entertained, they just have to have clear motivations and a simple sincerity. As far as any of the humor or lines coming off stale or lame-I've seen MUCH worse in movies made by people who speak English every day of the week. Silver Hawk is beautiful, strong, original, well made and modest. Ten stars and my recommendation if you like superheroine or superhero movies, martial arts and sci-fi.

In many ways this movie is like batman I mean its a female crime fighter unlike batman being male. The movie had her history and the history of her so called brother who is a police officer. The movie is poorly designed in the regards of script. The movies main selling point is the female crime fighter. The crime fighter has a selfish need to be the center of the combat and not let others help her out. The crime fighter happens to be very conceded. She also needs to learn how to relay on others to help her out. Only twice in the movie did she ever let anyone help her.The first time was when she asked Kit for help. The second time she allowed anyone to help was in the last battle when she let her brother do his trade mark move which destroyed the window behind him.

I won't lie. I LOVE Michelle Yeoh. I would watch a ninety minute movie in which she simply reads a phone book (not two hours, though...I'm not that big a fan). From the beginning of this movie to the end, they give you what you want: Michelle Yeoh, kicking butt... Her Silver Hawk costume is simply silver cloth and hotpants. The best special effect is her motorcycle. My son was immediately reminded of Batgirl. But, Yeoh is fun...smiling as she beats up villains, giggling with her female friends...far from the solemn character that she was in Crouching Tiger. Her personality was much more like Wing Chun. The martial arts sequences are good and you can see that Yeoh did a lot of her own stunts. The villain looks particularly villainous. There is very little death in this and the violence is cartoonish. A joy to watch!

My wife and I didn't expect much from this film, knowing that it has the worst box office in the past ten years for a Chinese New Year release and how much we loathed "The Touch"... However, being a sucker for bad movies, I opted for the action movie rather than the other usual comedies and I wasn't disappointed at all. Yes, the dialogues might be a bit dodgy, a common flaw amongst Hong Kong production nowadays, trying to look "Hollywood-esque" but we were there for the action and we got what we were looking for, great fight sequence with each character having his/her own fighting style. I have seen most of Yeoh's movies and this one ranked right at the top with "crouching tiger hidden dragon". Most of her film roles were forgettable but "silver hawk" at least leaves a more lasting impression albeit Yeoh really begin to look her years. I certainly hope that a sequel would follow but judging from the box-office, I might be pushing too far.