Luc Besson and company do it again. Like its predecessor, Transporter 2 dropkicks its audience into a double dose of high-adrenaline and highly-stylized action, this time by way of a constant stream of car and boat chases, topnotch martial arts choreography from screen action maestro Corey Yuen, and one hard body femme fatale whose packing some serious heat. It’s just what the doctor ordered, unless you’re already ailing from chronic deficiencies in smart plotting and developed characters.
Jason Statham returns as former Special Forces operative and driver-for-hire Frank Martin, a professional who always plays by his own exacting rules. Those rules get tested once again as he finds his latest client, the child of a prominent official, played by Matthew Modine, kidnapped by a ruthless criminal bent on using the child to unleash a deadly virus to wipe out a gathering of world health officials. It’s a plot straight out of a comic book and in fact, that’s where the entire movie veers like a rollercoaster that’s just slipped its tracks on the final corkscrew.
At one point a mad scientist of sorts taunts Martin, who’s hot on the trail of the antidote to the virus, by suggesting that if he wants to be a superhero they should see if he can fly. Martin stops short of actually taking full flight, but in just about every other regard he displays abilities far beyond that of your average human being, or even your most highly trained and experienced special forces operative. He’s able to bound out of windows and onto passing cars without a scratch, leap above colliding vehicles, fist fight in a jet plane that’s spiraling uncontrollably towards open water, and in the film’s most inconceivable stretch of the imagination, detach a bomb from the underside of a car by hooking it onto a crane as the car passes in a rolling jump.
To further solidify the movie’s comic book aspirations, we have a slinky villainess with twin sub-machine guns who just stepped off the page of a Calvin Klein ad wearing nothing but intimate apparel, red stilettos, gun holsters and a lot of mascara. And that’s for when she’s out on the town.
Liberal use of CGI to greatly enhance and amplify many of the vehicular action scenes is hardly convincing and brings to mind inane images of the Charlie’s Angels climbing into a falling helicopter in Full Throttle or James Bond surfing the Antarctic in Die Another Day. Thankfully, fewer flights of digital fancy were required for the film’s many fabulous fight scenes thanks to Corey Yuen’s expertise and Jason Statham’s competent screen fighting abilities. For this reviewer at least, this is what saved the film from laughable tedium brought on by not only the action excesses, but also the forgettable acting, bland dialogue and a clunky B-movie plot.
Yuen’s fight choreography expands on what we saw in the previous film where Statham battled in tight confines, with an assortment of random objects and against many opponents at once. Statham has developed a very appealing screen fighting rhythm that’s complimented by precise editing and dynamic camera work, both no doubt heavily overseen by Yuen. The style of martial arts used by Statham is basically movie martial arts mixed with elements of traditional kung fu and more direct techniques that employ quick disarming, takedowns and submissions. The kung fu comes into play as Statham takes up a pole to battle a room full of axe and sword-wielding goons. It’s remarkable to see how often Statham’s techniques resemble those Jet Li put to use in his modern-day movies, particularly with regard to the use of handcuffs and a fire hose. Then again, the techniques have Corey Yuen’s signature all over them.
The fire hose fight is without the doubt the film’s high point. The composition of this fight as it intensifies and reaches its climax is brilliantly executed and features some outstanding stunt work on the part of the stunt actors involved. Although Statham may not equal Jet Li with regard to martial arts training and formal execution, Corey still manages to improve on vaguely similar scenes he previously choreographed with Li. This proves that in the martial arts film world, the action director will always be king, no matter who is in front of the camera. Of course, in a perfect world the role of action director and star roll into one, as happened with Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.
Transporter 2 is action fluff. That’s the truth. It’s an insubstantial ride through one over-the-top action scene after another, although definitely propped up by very sophisticated fight work. There’s nothing wrong with that, so long as it’s consistently entertaining. For some it will be, but for others who yearn for something to engage the mind even a little, it may be a disappointing ride.
by Mark Pollard
