THE STORY
Well, here we go! The first Hong Kong movie of 2004 with blockbuster written all over it. Too bad they ran out of ink, when they got to the script.
Silver Hawk is your everyday vigilante superhero, à la Batman. A rich spoiled woman who decides to take the law into her own hands. Naturally the police hate her, but she has strong support from the public.
The police assigns a new detective Rich Man to find her. But actually he once trained with Silver Hawks real life alter ego, Lulu, when they were kids.
But Silver Hawk is about to face her most serious enemy. The vicious Alexander Wolfe has an evil plan to take over the world. A special chip installed in a new generation of cellphones will enable him to control the mind of any user.
Silver Hawk must join forces with Rich Man to overcome this serious threat.
THE FILM
Answer me this: A bad guy who wants to take over the world by manipulating people through their phones... Is that really the best idea they could come up with? You realize of course this plot is basically stolen from Batman Forever (theres also a Batman & Robin-scene with skating supervillain henchmen! No, really!). This kind of plot would even fit right in with the cheesy Batman TV-series of the 60s, but it has no place in a modern blockbuster wannabe from Asias leading female actionstar.
But it gets worse.
It turns out that Silver Hawk is a politically correct film. The kind of film where bad guys are just knocked out, where no one dies, no one is shot, and theres virtually no sign of blood. A PG rated Hong Kong actionmovie? Sadly, yes!
Theres no doubt that Michelle Yeoh is a stunning woman. Elegant and beautiful. She radiates confidence, and shes charming as hell. Shes one of those women wholl look more and more beautiful the older she gets. But in this film shes pulled a Jackie Chan. In the very first scene she manages to simply scare some bad guys into submission, while saving an endangered animal. Tell me Im dreaming.
But in all honesty the lack of blood can easily be forgiven if the superhero in question is really cool. Silver Hawk, however, is not cool. She resembles Zorro more than any other superhero. She has a horse that comes when she whistles (okay, so its a motorcycle, but still), and a mask that wouldnt fool a three year old. Also, she doesnt seem to be able to get from A to B without jumping or semi-floating though the air in slow-motion. That gets tiresome real quick. Yeoh has a unattractive goofy smile plastered all over her face every time she dons the silvery suit. Its a smile that says Im the hero, so nothing really bad will happen to me, somewhat of a buzz kill.
If youre making a superhero film, your biggest problem can not under any circumstances be the hero. That absolutely has to be your strongest card, everything depends on it. When the hero doesnt work, the film doesnt work.
In short, Silver Hawk doesnt work. Its that simple.
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