Violent vendetta

>>War is a clichéd but slick
revenge-fuelled action thriller

by JASON BOGDANERIS

As he settles comfortably into middle age, Jet Li now relies on his face to do what his fists once did. Those expecting the full-on martial arts thriller that War is promoted to be may be disappointed. Instead, we get a revenge-fuelled action movie that stays within the confines of its cliché-ridden genre, but it does so with impeccable style. Beautifully shot with well-calibrated graininess, it plays out the hero vs. anti-hero dynamic for all it’s worth.

Like all revenge-fantasy pictures involving cops, the officer sadistically slain by the heartless killer is as nice a guy as you’ll ever meet and patriarch to an adoring wife and adorable young daughter. When his partner (Jason Statham) sniffs the scorched earth outside his burned home, his narrow-eyed sneer lets us know that he’ll stop at nothing (nothing!) to find the killer—even if that means destroying his marriage. As the prototypical workaholic cop, Statham plays federal agent Jack Crawford straight as an arrow in a performance verging on, but never quite succumbing to, mock-worthy clichés.

And then there’s Mr. Li, who plays a man known throughout the Yakuza network, stretching from San Francisco to Japan, simply as “Rogue.” He’s a notoriously amoral assassin who specializes in escaping death and inflicting it with unmatched skill. It soon becomes clear that he’s also the man Statham is looking for, now sporting a surgically reconstructed face.

Statham’s quest is complicated by the fact that Rogue seems to have become a one-man wrecking crew, nearly single-handedly igniting gang warfare at the behest of local boss Chang (John Lone). But as Rogue’s intentions get murkier and the story twists back on itself in a familiar cross/double-cross pattern, things get interesting and bloodier.

Li’s line readings are stilted and he’s most effective when playing the strong, silent badass type. As he toys with both the feds and yakuza thugs like trapped mice, his Cheshire cat grin becomes his character’s defining trait. And while the “how” is great fun, the mysterious “why” of his intentions keeps us interested until the last bombastic frame. So what if the resolution doesn’t quite make sense?

WAR OPENS THIS FRIDAY, AUG. 24

>> Movie Listings