The exception, though, is Sonny Chiba’s Lord Conquer. Kristy Yang as Charity is merely the third point in the token love triangle in the film, and Shu Qi as the latter half’s comic relief just feels awkward. Ekin Cheng’s Wind does not even have the same opportunity for posturing and only really exists because the plot demands it. Aaron Kwok’s Cloud is a brooding hero whose emotional range is demonstrated either with comical posing or overstated saccharine sentimentality. You really have to wonder why such effort was made in portraying those particular scenes, since their impact upon either the plot or the main characters is minimal.īut then, most of the main characters are so two-dimensional that it seems little would affect their development that does not add to their eventual triumph in the end. It is not uncommon in cinema for characters to act as carriers of some talismanic plot device that is to be given to or taken by the central characters.
#The storm riders 1998 series
The fact that I’ve discovered (while researching the film for this writeup) that there was a television series that predated the film just makes me second-guess whether there was some footage recycling for the sake of fans of the serial.Īnd this film really suffers for trying to be way too faithful to its source material, cramming so much story into its two hour run time that the character and plot development are minimal. Part of this is perhaps the editing choices for the film, which feel clichéd and inconsistent from battle to battle, particularly in the beginning before Aaron and Ekin as Cloud and Wind enter the scene. The effects really do look dated and obvious, with a number of scenes at a level I associate with television martial arts soaps. It was convenient then that Pinnacle are about to do an Australian DVD release, meaning I get to revisit this 1998 ‘classic’.Īh, nostalgia – it’s not what it use to be.įor a film originally sold upon its cutting-edge digital effects and dynamic comic book aesthetic, I feel somewhat bad to say the film has not aged well at all. So whilst skimming over a cinema guide recently, my mind slowly drifted to one of the first comic book digital effects spectacles that I could remember: The Storm Riders.
The Storm Riders was a fun, entertaining movie.Well, there seems to a plethora of comic book based movies nowadays, with the ever-increasing ability of digital effects to recreate the comic book panel.
#The storm riders 1998 movie
I tend to struggle with movies based on comics as often the movie makers assume the viewer is completely familiar with the story and they tend to skip about or not flesh out the main characters, but this story was told in a comprehensible straight forward manner and granted the main characters enough story development for me to care about them. I would liked to have seen a few more actual martial arts moves during the fights. The special effects were very good, but at times over-powered the fight scenes. The movie rarely slows down to let the viewer catch their breath. There's a fiery monster, a fighting monk, destiny, magical glowing red fruit and an arm seeking it's master. Of course, the movie hits its stride when Cloud and Wind must combine forces into a storm to try and take down Lord Conqueror and avenge their families while also freeing themselves and the world from his tyranny. Kristy Yeung and Shu Qi are there more for adornments and a little lusty conflict and humor respectively, but not particularly integral to the story. Ekin Cheng as the kindhearted Wind and Aaron Kwok as the unpredictable Cloud make for an interesting pair of men raised as brothers by the man who killed their fathers. He has the evil laugh down to an art form. Rewatch Value 5.5 Mix a Big Bad out to rule the martial world with two handsome warriors raised as his disciples and an overly accommodating daughter caught up in a love triangle with the two men, throw in a lot of CGI fight scenes and you have The Storm Riders.
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