REVIEW: ‘Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever’ (2002)

BALLISTIC is the sort of action film I wanted to like. The director’s influences appear to include the Wachowski brothers and Hong Kong filmmakers like John Woo. Effort was made to stylize the action and create a moody atmosphere that minimizes dialogue in favor of straight up action. The film stars cult favorite Antonia Bandaras in a role seemingly returning him to his violent roots with filmmaker Robert Rodriguiz. Then there is also Ray Park whose potential for onscreen martial prowess is worth getting excited about. So why then is the film such a bloody bore?

The film begins with a set piece meant to introduce Lucy Liu as the toughest female action star since Angela Mao began wiping the floor with male thugs in the early ’70s. She single-handedly wipes out a small caravan of men in vehicles transporting a small boy. Draped in shadow and a gothic-looking hood, Sever (Liu) beats the tar out of the remaining men on foot and steals away with the child who happens to be the son of Robert Gant, a former CSA agent now running a mercenary and assassination business.

The CSA are trying to get their hands on this rogue agent so they entice a former member named Ecks (Antonio Bandaras) out of retirement in order to track down this Sever and find out what her connection is to Gant. The carrot dangling in front of this forlorn fellow is the hope that Sever knows where his missing wife is. Another active member of the CSA named Ross (Ray Park), who is working for Gant, is ordered to capture Sever and a violent downtown battle ensues. Sever gets away, but it’s only a matter of time before Ecks finds her and a mutual respect develops. The two pair up to take on Gant and his little army in a pleasant industrial setting.

This film is based on a video game, which never bodes well for its potential quality. First time director Wych Kaosayananda tries hard to create an engaging action film, but ultimately fails to draw the audience in, mostly due to the emotionless acting and limited dialogue. He plays with visuals that occasionally work, such as Bandaras’ slow motion walk through pouring rain, but they end up appearing more like a collection of slick demo shots thrown into a mundane film.

Another major detractor that really peeved me was the pacing. It was remarkably slow for an action movie. Potentially exciting scenes of massive gun battles are blasted apart by bad editing where the camera lingers on shots. In between the action, there is too much fluff, extraneous scenes of generic shots devoid of impact on the story.

Sadly, the final showdown is probably the worst laid out scene in the whole film. Ridiculously overdone and pointless explosions attempt to dazzle the viewer, followed by a railcar cat and mouse game where Liu’s flawless character laughably becomes unable to hit Ross and his cohorts with a machine gun from a short distance.

The featured hand-to-hand combat scene is Liu’s battle with Park and its chopped up and poorly choreographed.

The acting isn’t any better than the action. Liu comes away looking the worst in a role she couldn’t pull off to save her life. She’s completely unconvincing as the dower and deadly assassin she’s supposed to be portraying. What’s missing is a whimsy that she possessed in PAYBACK (1999) which worked so well and suited her looks. Bandaras simply walks through the story. This wastes his potential for a more engaging performance. I don’t even need to discuss Park. The guy can bust out the moves in the right circumstances, but his acting ability is very limited and this film only makes him look bad.

Having deservedly ripped apart everything in sight, the soundtrack gets the final slam for continuing in the tradition of Jet Li’s THE ONE for offering too much mindless, thumping techno-rock. The music is representative of the whole film that rehashes a gaggle of modern genre conventions and sloppily throws it all together in hopes of hitting the right key at some point. The truth is ECKS VS. SEVER is an exercise in completely wasted resources that should have been put to better use.

Related Topics: Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002), Ray Park