Ryan Jeffers (Mario Yedidia) is a young boy with a disabled leg who dreams of being able to play football alongside the other kids. After Ryan accepts a dare to paint his name on a wall in a drainage basin, Ryan is washed away by a deluge of water. Ryan awakens in the magical but dying world of Tao (pronounced with a "t" in the movie rather than a "d"). Ryan stumbles across the last remnants of resistance in Tao at the lifespring who are in a losing war against sorcerer/warlord Komodo (Angus Macfadyen) who has ravaged all of Tao's other lifespirng's in pursuit of eternal life. Ryan is told by Tao elder Master Chung (Chao-Li Chi) that Ryan is the Newcomer who will bring the Manuscript of Tao back and give the kangaroo Warriors of Virtue the chance they need to reclaim Tao from Komodo.
Warriors of Virtue has a very odd production history. The film was a passion project for the four Hong Kong born American Law Brothers (Ronald, Dennis, Christopher, and Jeremy) based on characters they created and using their personal finances that their father had accrued in the toy manufacturing industry. None of the brothers had any prior experience or connection with filmmaking, and fronted the entirety of the film's $35-36 million dollar shooting budget themselves (though the brothers claim other investors contributed) while MGM/UA fronted another $20 million in distribution and advertising costs. The brothers using their finances procured talent from both eastern and western film industries with effects artist Tony Gardner (Darkman, Army of Darkness, Hocus Pocus, etc.), Oscar winning production designer Eugenio Zanetti, and respected character actor Angus Macfadyen. You can tell the brothers had a lot of passion for the movie....it's just a shame the movie isn't very good.
The movie seems like it should be interesting even if by accident, but the movie shoots itself in the foot by making the titular Warriors of Virtue secondary (bordering on tertiary) characters while the main focus is on our main character Ryan who just isn't all that interesting. Ryan has a disable leg and wants to play football.....that's it. He has a loving family, a small but loyal circle of friends, and lives in nice conditions but we're supposed to buy into his "woe is me, I can't play football" plot because.... I honestly don't know. Once we actually get to Tao after Ryan engages in an ill advised bet with the stock "Bully" characters the movie doesn't get much more interesting. The scenes where Ryan is first introduced are very dry and exposition heavy and we're told second hand about the titular Warriors of Virtue rather than allowing them to speak for themselves. For comparison Imagine if in the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie the entire movie was told from the point of view of Danny Pennington while April O'Neill got the 2nd most screen time, Splinter got the 3rd most, and we only ever had Splinter tell us about the turtles and their personalities rather than see them first hand. That's basically what they did in this movie and it makes for a frustrating viewing experience because all the potentially interesting characters are held at a distance. It's frustrating because it feels like a bait and switch from what was promised.
The world of Tao is well built, but unfortunately fails to standout because of its familiarity to so many of other films. You can definitely see traces of the Dagobah swamp and Ewok Village from Star Wars, the bandit hide out from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and the Lost Boys treehouse from Hook just to name a few. It's an ugly movie to look at because it's bathed in a mixture of shadows, brown, and purple and just isn't all that pleasant to look at. Komodo's fortress is slightly more visually appealing, but there's a flimsiness to the sets that keeps them from coming to life. The animatronic Kangaroos by Tony Gardener are okay and reasonably well designed, but the face unfortunately is a major misstep as they fall into the uncanny valley by an attempt to make the Roo heads look too human. Sorry to bring up Ninja Turtles again, but that movie knew to keep the comic/cartoon design and not try to "humanize" the turtles. I could see these designs being appealing, but they'd need to dial back the humanoid features to do so.
The fight sequences are at least reasonably well staged. While the nature of the Roo animatronics and costumes meant they had to be filmed at a lower shutter speed resulting in a more blurred appearance to the fights, there's at least a good sense of special geography and impact thanks to the experience of Hong Kong action director Ronny Yu. The action isn't the best that has come from those with a Hong Kong film pedigree, but it does have a good level of craft and style to it. Angus Macfadyen also gives a scenery chewing performance as villain Lord Komodo over annunciating, changing voice volume on a moment's notice, and making silly sounds and gestures that are unintentionally(?) funny. Objectively speaking it's a terrible performance, but it's the best kind of terrible performance.
Warriors of Virtue is a misguided but well intentioned failure. There are good elements in Warriors of Virtue, but a lack of a compelling story and misplaced focus on an uninteresting protagonist make Warriors of Virtue a slog to sit through. While there are some decent fight scenes and an entertaining performance from Angus Macfadyen, they're bogged down by scenes of long dry exposition and a meandering plot with too many ancillary elements. In terms of martial arts adventures for family audiences this is better than the likes of 3 Ninjas, Ninja Turtles III, or Surf Ninjas, but it's nowhere near the level of superior movies like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I or II.
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