Highlander Endgame
Review
Format: Theatre
Stars: Donnie Yen, June Watson, Christopher Lambert

This is an American movie with Donnie Yen. Surprise!!! Highlander, for those of you who don't really know, is about immortals who are struggling to be the best, or something. When they decapitate another immortal, they get that immortal's power. So, this movie is mainly about competition, which set the mood really well I thought. The sets were cool, and the acting wasn't so bad, and I liked the flashbacks. It made the whole thing really diverse, going to the 1600's, 1700's, and 1800's (it seemed), and also modern day. Cool.

But this review isn't about how good the plot is! It's about the action. Well, it has Donnie Yen, so I was so excited about seeing this after my friend telling me that Donnie actually got a hand to hand fight! Oh boy! So I waited for that part, which came soon. In the beginning, Donnie comes in on a motorcycle, 2 guys are shooting at him, and the bike blows up, so he jumps off and does his super cool kick where he kicks one guy, pounces off him, and does a reverse on the other standing right next to him. Exciting seeing Donnie on the big screen. Then he takes on 3 dudes without any problem, using what looked like Wing Chun and Donnie-boxing, if you know what I mean. He does this a few times, kicks someone behind him, and does an axe kick onto someone on the ground. Right after that, someone's coming around the corner, so he takes off his helmet, jumps up, kicks it and it goes and nails the guy in the head. They filmed it really well. They filmed the part where he jumps up to kick it from the side, then filmed it right in front when he hit it. Cool.

Ok so let's move on to the next scene. June Watson (who plays Dunceon Macleod) is in a run down building and has his sword when Donnie's gang comes in to attack. Who cares, they suck and the camera goes all over the place, and Watson runs all over the wall... I hate that. Donnie shows up with a staff, on the end of it is a blade with a point at the end of that. Watson gears up, and Donnie goes in for the attack. I figured that this wouldn't be the highlight of the entire scene, but it was. The camera man apparently knew exactly what he was doing. Maybe Donnie decided where to put it this time, who knows, who cares, it looks awesome. Along with that, Donnie throws his staff around like it's a whip, and the entire time he keeps every part of his body moving, including his legs, feet, knees, head, shoulders, everything. I didn't pay attention to Watson. Donnie sticks his staff into the ground, does an arial off it, and lets go, saying "The honor isn't in the weapon, it's in the body" (key words which mean "let's have a fist fight"). I got excited, and it started out really well, with Watson doing very well actually, but about 10 seconds into this fight the camera starts going places where I didn't want it to go. For example, they exchange a good 6 hits while there is a staircase between them and the camera. Why did the camera man do this? Was it someone else? A good fight, but the camera films their torsoes and you can't really see what their hands are doing. ... Ruined.

I didn't like any of the rest of the action in this. The fight between Lambert and Watson was filmed poorly again, cuts every 2 seconds, all swords. Same for the last fight. Both could have been good had they been filmed well, but damn, things don't work. I CARE about what they're doing with these swords, but apparently the director thought that the audience generally didn't give a crap, and maybe it doesn't. But I do, and I don't like this.

Donnie Yen was the star in this movie, outshining everyone by a long shot, I even thought that he looked the best just standing there, and he's realistic. The rest of the movie I don't like (action wise of course; the plot was cool), and when Donnie Yen died I just didn't care anymore. This is too bad.

Next time they should have Donnie Yen do all the fights, and then have him get a good camera man, and then he should take part in all the fights. This was a WASTE of his skill. He deserved so much more because he could have made this movie kick ass, but they killed him.

Rating: 6/10 - Sure the plot might be good, but the action isn't so hot without Donnie. So that's why I'm so sour about this.

UPDATE 10/9 - Rating System Change

2/5 - I downgraded it a little too. All the points go to Donnie.

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