Any follow-up to a Tsui Hark-Jet Li collaboration, as in BLACK MASK is sure to be a tough act to match. This time around, Tsui targets Western audiences with a cast of mostly English-speaking genre actors and calls on newcomer Andy On to don the mask. BLACK MASK 2: CITY OF MASKS strongly emphasizes a comic book feel with unreal CGI enhancements, rubber monster suits and both a simple plot and dialogue. It’s a veritable B-movie lover’s paradise.

In the first film, Jet Li was a super-soldier trained by a government agency gone renegade who must fight his former comrades. Tsui Hark does here, essentially what he did with ZU: WARRIORS FROM THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN. Instead of a direct sequel, he basically re-made the film. The agency is now what looks like a supercomputer called Zeus who has genetically altered and trained two agents to be used as contract killers. One of them, who becomes Black Mask (Andy On) has already gone AWOL and Liang (Scott Adkins) is sent to get him back. Black Mask has become a superhero who responds to a crisis involving a pro-wrestling match being disrupted by an iguana-man. The wrestlers themselves are test subjects of a genetic experiment performed by a mad scientist named Moloch (Tobin Bell) who has introduced animal and plant DNA into their bodies. The resulting effects are comical at best.

The effects in the film are really a grab bag of oddities that range from impressive looking to ridiculous. The morphing and make-up effects are corny, while the futuristic cityscapes and digital combat looks fairly good. The action by Yuen Wo-ping and Yuen Bun is more uniformly entertaining. It pretty much matches the kind of scenes you would see in X-MEN or CHARLIE’S ANGELS. Martial arts skills are not emphasized and both digital and wirework is mixed in liberally, but it works well for the superhero genre.

Those looking for any depth should look elsewhere since this film doesn’t even scratch the surface when it comes to character development. Andy On’s portrayal of Black Mask is one-dimensional and we learn nothing about him. He has a fling with Dr. Marco Leung (Teresa Herrera), a geneticist who has an odd tendency to literally freeze when touched by men. They also befriend a young kid whose father (Michael Bailey Smith) is the only wrestler to not be injected with the serum, but ends up in the hospital.

Most of the acting is bargain basement quality which is not surprising with B-actors like Traci Lords attached. But Tsui is throwing so much at the viewer that it doesn’t matter.
Much of the film is shot with dark lighting, possibly to obscure some of the less convincing effects. Tsui Hark’s patented camera tricks used to great effect in films like TIEM AND TIDE get lost in the melee of digital wizardry. But, unlike his more serious projects, Tsui appears to have used this film to fill many ideas he’s built up that could not fit elsewhere.

The result is mindless, chaotic and yet somehow gratifying. This film easily matches mediocre genre films from Hollywood in recent years. But, it has the added value of trading in their pretentiousness for an almost child-like glee to remind you that this is a Tsui Hark film. Even in his lesser films (we won’t talk about THE MASTER) he always has something to offer.

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