Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung are together again onscreen in this sci-fi fighting extravaganza. It contains loads of unrestrained digital effects and lacks originality but THE AVENGING delivers on comic-tinged action.

At some point in the future, the government has figured out a way to tap into the unused portion of the brain using what is called a Power Glove. This gives its wielder incredible power and one hundred police officers are selected to test them. Yet, the glove affects each person differently, resulting in two defections. Combat 21 (Roy Cheung) goes mad with power and forms an underground force known as the Red Dragon Army, intent on overthrowing the government. Also going with him is Thunder, the most powerful of the bunch, thanks in part to his mastery of ancient martial arts. He is played with intensity by Yuen Biao, who has been brainwashed into serving Combat 21.

Twenty years later, Thunder’s son, Mega Nova (Wang Lee-hom) and daughter have been trained in Thunder’s form of martial arts. They end up the target of Combat 21 who is trying to discover how to tap into 100% of the mind without using the Power Glove. After kidnapping the daughter who holds the key to this potential, Combat 21 unleashes lethal gas into a large section of the populous in order to gain control of the world and its resources. With the help of Officer Dark (Sammo Hung), Mega Nova and his friend Iron Surfer (Stephen Fung) unleash the full potential of their minds and attempt to stop Combat 21 before its too late.

Right off the bat, it will be easy to spot the film’s influences. THE AVENGING FIST may move the martial arts genre into the future but most of the sci-fi elements are strictly from the past. The gratuitously shot setting of a futuristic city is a hybrid of THE FIFTH ELEMENT and BLADE RUNNER where flying cars whiz between tall, industrial-like skyscrapers under a perpetually dark sky. In a flashback sequence, Yuen Biao and Roy Cheung steal one of the Power Gloves in a scene reminiscent of TERMINATOR 2 as the glove slides out from a wall panel.

Nova, who inherits his father’s glove has been told his father is dead until he turns up as Combat 21′s pawn, wearing a mask. Brainwashed, Thunder tries to kill his own son until he realizes the truth at the last moment and sacrifices himself for the sake of his son. This plot should sound familiar to anyone who has ever seen STAR WARS and recalls a similar relationship between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. If you listen closely you’ll even hear the sound of a Tie-fighter laser blast during a fight at the beginning of the film!

The film was originally supposed to be an unofficial version of the video game TEKKEN. Lawyers stepped in early on, halting production. The results were a series of delays, several title changes and much speculation.

An early scene in the film involves a fight between our heroes, Nova and Iron Surfer. The action is highly stylized with ample amounts of computer enhancement thrown in to replicate the kind of moves one might see in a video game. Even E.T. gets ripped when Nova and his love Erika streak across a moon-filled night sky.

It’s a shame that while Hong Kong action films have fully embraced digital effects, their stories generally remain poor. There is no explanation as to why our heroes are fighting on a fake rooftop. In an awkward nightclub scene, Nova meets Erika, the woman of his dreams and precedes to mock-fight her in a ludicrous New Wave dance. Wang Lee-hom’s hammed anguish over his mother’s death is marginally tolerable but repeating the same scene with his father frays the nerves.

Although short, the whole romance angle, complete with a sappy Canto-pop soundtrack is out of place with the rest of the film’s raw action. It’s as if the producers felt it necessary to throw in the romance to broaden the film’s marketing potential. The film continues the Hong Kong trend of abrupt endings in a confusingly short series of effects shots, followed by a campy closing shot of our heroes, followed by more Canto-pop.

More traditional martial arts film fans will be disappointed with THE AVENGING FIST despite the prominent roles taken by Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. The two actually get to fight each other briefly but the scene is drowned in special effects. Always willing to poke fun at himself, Sammo’s younger self is played by Ekin Cheng (LEGEND OF ZU) in a short cameo. Sammo’s increased size is explained as an aftereffect of using the Power Glove. Biao gets more screen time but very few lines. He spends most of the film brainwashed, while wearing a goofy steel mask over his mouth.

THE AVENGING FIST is not a lost cause, just hampered by a number of poor elements. Fans of LEGEND OF ZU and THE STORM RIDERS will enjoy the heavy effects-augmented action. It’s also nice to see action director Corey Yuen, Hung and Yuen making a solid transition to the latest trends in action cinema. If only the filmmakers had tightened up the story and toned down the effects, the film would have been a lot better.

Additionally, they need to start springing for symphonic scores or edgy pop music as the conventional synthesizer melodies and Canto-pop tunes do not augment the film well at all.

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