Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Blade of Kings Blu-ray Movie Review

Where's Merlin when you really need him?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 27, 2012

American pop stars have had a somewhat troubled history when they attempt to cross market their music stardom into the film world. For every Doris Day, there’s a Whitney Houston. For every Elvis Presley, there’s a Pat Boone. Sales in the record business don’t necessarily translate into box office returns at the cinema, and even those who achieve even passing success (like Houston) are rarely acclaimed for their thespian prowess. Some seem to be in on the joke (Presley for one, at least by the mid-sixties), and simply go through the motions, giving affable enough performances and then simply waiting for the cash to arrive in buckets, which it quite often does. The Asian film industry seems to be going through a glut of pop stars coming over into the world of film, and like their American counterparts, some of these huge music stars seem at least partially ill at ease in their new medium. Some of these crossover artists, like Jay Chou, are now well ensconced in their film careers. The members of Cantopop Group Twins, Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung, haven’t had quite the same impact, something perhaps at least partially attributable to their split after an intimate photo scandal involving Chung. But Emperor Entertainment Group, the duo’s record label as well as its film production company, can’t be blamed for trying to build a filmic tentpole franchise with the two beautiful and glamorous women, which, halting as it may be, has thus far produced The Twins Effect, The Twins Effect II and Twins Mission (not to mention a few other projects which managed not to include Twins in the title). The Twins Effect posited the two women as sort of dual Buffy the Vampire Slayers. The Twins Effect II, released now on Blu-ray as Blade of Kings (after all, someone might mistake it for a new Danny DeVito-Arnold Schwarzenegger film otherwise), blasts the pair into the distant past, in a sort of feudal Indiana Jones world full of sorcery and magic, replete with a stone oracle of sorts that will lead its finder to a sword named Excalibur. Now that’s cross marketing for you!

Whether you call this film The Twins Effect II or Blade of Kings, the fact is this is manufactured movie making at its most blatant. Elements from any number of films are chopped, diced and spliced together, all with an eye to showing off the two female stars in undemanding circumstances and with an eye toward ease of marketing and (hopefully) box office returns. There’s certainly nothing wrong about films that take this tack, and Blade of Kings is often a lot of fun, in a goofy, silly sort of way, but for anyone expecting anything of substance here, in a word: don’t. The good news is Blade of Kings doesn’t take itself very seriously, or indeed seriously at all, and a lot of the film is full of wacky little bits that help the non-nutritional value of the movie go down a little easier.

Blade of Kings gives us a little context right off the bat with a brief textual prologue which lets us know that though this is ancient China, it’s a China full of Amazons, as in powerful women, women who rule over (and actually own) men, who are referred to as dumbbells, due to the clanging slave chains the men all wear. However dumbbell applies in its more colloquial sense with regard to the two main men of the film, a couple of idiot savants (without the savant part) named Charcoal Head (Jaycee Chan, Jackie’s son, in his film debut) and Blockhead (Wilson Chen). Despite his less than overwhelming acumen, it turns out that Charcoal Head is a sort of prophesied King Arthur type, hence his quest to find Excalibur. The Twins come along for the ride, and though there are a number of other subplots, including how this Amazon situation came to be in the first place, that’s really the sum total of the “plot” of Blade of Kings. It is, in other words, an anecdotal quest movie, wrapped up in a sort of buddy (female and/or male) comedy approach that allows for plenty of banter and some less than totally intellectual humor.

The fact that both Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan are on hand here might be seen as a double dose of desperation on the part of the filmmakers, especially since neither role is really relevant to the main plot arc, and a promised showdown between these two popular stars proves to be less than thrilling. In fact, for a wire work heavy CGI-fest, the fighting in this film is strangely anemic, despite the film having been helmed by the usually reliable duo of Patrick Leung and Corey Yuen. The opening fight between the Twins is a case in point. Even putting aside the sort of clumsy “athleticism” both of the women display, the fight is staged stupidly and filmed incoherently, with one crane shot (perhaps more descriptively called a gimbal shot) circling the women over and over again, first up, then down, then up again, for absolutely no other purpose than that it gives the sequence a little momentum that it doesn’t otherwise offer.

This is not all to say that Blade of Kings isn’t entertaining, for it is, within its own limited confines and ambitions. This is a film that knows it isn’t aiming very high, but which manages to find the mark more often than not, even if that mark is uninspired, predictable and pretty insipid. The film is incredibly bright, full of whirling colors and lots of goofy action, obviously designed to draw attention away from the fact that there’s not much at its core. This is mindless popcorn movie fare, Hong Kong style. It doesn’t pretend to be anything more or less, and if that’s all you’re out to experience, Blade of Kings will do as well as anything else out there.

Blade of Kings Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Blade of Kings is presented on Blu-ray couresty of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a very vivid and appealing looking high definition presentation, with incredibly beautifully saturated colors that pop extremely well throughout the film. The film benefits from some nicely sumptuous costume designs, and those all look magnificent, with fine detail often seeming to reveal every thread or pill in any given outfit. The CGI here is widely variable, some of it looking rather good, nicely sharp and convincing, with other aspects being more amateurish, with a sort of soft and unconvincing ambience. Overall, though, this is a crisp and clear presentation whose only troubling issue is some occasional contrast fluctuation that sometimes adds a milky look to some of the brighter sequences.

Blade of Kings Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Blade of Kings offers two language tracks, the original Cantonese and an English dub, in either DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or Dolby Digital 2.0 mixes. As is usually the case, the English dub is pretty lamentable, with little attention paid to matching syllabification (or even length of dialogue) to lip movements. The Cantonese track is extremely forceful and wonderfully immersive from the credits sequence on. The inventive sound effects utilized throughout the film are often nicely directional and there's also fairly consistent use of LFE. The film features some fantastic panning effects in several fight sequences, notably the "big showdown" between Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan which has a lot of blades slashing through the air. Dialogue is clean and crisp as well. About the only downside to this audio is the really awful score which consists of brief snippets of string and percussion and does little to establish mood or ambience.

Blade of Kings Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (SD; 12:02) features the Twins hosting a pretty standard look at the filming of The Twins Effect II.


• Music Video (SD; 3:27) offers the musical side of the Twins, in a sort of poppy tune mixed with some lighter hip hop elements.


• Original Trailer (HD; 2:11)


• Trailer (HD; 1:31)

Blade of Kings Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Blade of Kings is pure mindless entertainment, and as such it succeeds well enough. This is one of the brightest and most colorful presentations in recent memory and that helps distract the viewer from the paucity of original ideas, characters and the really surprising lack of excitingly staged fight sequences. The stars are okay, nothing more, nothing less, and Yen and Chan (the elder) are wasted in cameos that don't do enough to inject some much needed exuberance to the proceedings. Still, this is fun to watch and, aside from a lamentable music score, very immersive to listen to. Fans of silly martial arts fantasy laden films will probably like, if not love, Blade of Kings.