The Shadow's Edge
This review contains spoilers
- I suspect I will be on the higher end of the ratings on this one but it just connected with me. Hard to describe but I have a pretty simple standard a movie has to live up to in order to go from an 85 to 90. It's a feeling in my chest I get that lets me know that I LOVE a movie instead of really really like it. Hard to quantify, but when I feel it I know. I got that here. So a 90 to me represents when I'm in conversation with someone and I go, "I love The Shadow's Edge" or "The Shadow's Edge was awesome/amazing," rather than, "Yeah, it was really good" or "I really liked it."
- Really dug the action. Chan isn't trying to fight like a young man anymore, which is obviously smart, but there is some heaviness and brutality to everything. I mean, The Shadow himself is VIOLENT. Chan is less so but it's choreographed well.
- Not to mention the action is intense. There's a scene quite a ways through where invasions start happening and everyone's dying and it's some of the most thrilling action you'll see all year. It just hits you like a sack of bricks. Or when The Shadow fights a bunch of people using basically only his knife.
- From the beginning I was hooked. It was just a bunch of cool villains doing a heist with neat technology. It's a little disorienting because there are so many streets and moving parts, but I was enthralled.
- Speaking of the villains. The Shadow is an awesome villain. What I like most is that he has a deep love for the orphans he saved and now work with him, so when betrayal happens, he's obviously hurt (though he expected it), and yet he loves them so much he still wants to help them. But he's no hero. He's absolutely vile and violent, and I guess technically he does betray them back a bit. I dig the inner conflict, unless I misread the entire arc.
- Chan puts in a great performance too. Not best of the year or anything, but it's heartfelt, charming, sometimes funny. He's an old man suffering from the same thing any of us will as technology passes us by, but he also has more to give.
- Weird audio choices are mostly just splicing in animal/wolf sounds. Kind of cheesy. But that's a small gripe.
- Really dug the action. Chan isn't trying to fight like a young man anymore, which is obviously smart, but there is some heaviness and brutality to everything. I mean, The Shadow himself is VIOLENT. Chan is less so but it's choreographed well.
- Not to mention the action is intense. There's a scene quite a ways through where invasions start happening and everyone's dying and it's some of the most thrilling action you'll see all year. It just hits you like a sack of bricks. Or when The Shadow fights a bunch of people using basically only his knife.
- From the beginning I was hooked. It was just a bunch of cool villains doing a heist with neat technology. It's a little disorienting because there are so many streets and moving parts, but I was enthralled.
- Speaking of the villains. The Shadow is an awesome villain. What I like most is that he has a deep love for the orphans he saved and now work with him, so when betrayal happens, he's obviously hurt (though he expected it), and yet he loves them so much he still wants to help them. But he's no hero. He's absolutely vile and violent, and I guess technically he does betray them back a bit. I dig the inner conflict, unless I misread the entire arc.
- Chan puts in a great performance too. Not best of the year or anything, but it's heartfelt, charming, sometimes funny. He's an old man suffering from the same thing any of us will as technology passes us by, but he also has more to give.
- Weird audio choices are mostly just splicing in animal/wolf sounds. Kind of cheesy. But that's a small gripe.
Mini Review: Sometimes a movie just hits. I was enthralled the entire time. It just wants to entertain and it does so with some inspired action, memorable characters and great performances. And while its themes (old people vs new technology) are certainly not original, it's done well here. Both sides get their moments to shine. There are some weird audio choices and I think the ending sequence loses a bit of steam, but these are minor digs in a movie I otherwise love.
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