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Warriors of Virtue
(1997) - Directed by Ronny Yu
--------------------------------------------
Portal Fantasy / Martial Arts / Family
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So, take Ninja Turtles, add an A-Movie studio with Power Rangers B-actors, write a knockoff of The Neverending Story, give us a villain who's essentially Loki, and you get one of the most well-directed dorkfests of the 90's. Warriors of Virtue is a forgotten movie with a large amount of effort put into the production value, one with costumes almost as good as the ones from the earlier costume-driven film Nightbreed. But its story needs some work.
Middle-schooler Ryan has a limp and can't play sports, which he thinks will help him fit in. But he still has friends in odd places, like his martial artist / chef friend Ming, who gives him a rare book which he thinks will help Ryan with his life. When Ryan gets a chance to hang with the teen football players, he falls down a whirlpool in a water plant and ends up in the world of Tao, where he meets up with the guardians of that world: five Roo warriors who defend their people from the maniacal tyrant Komodo (not a lizard, human). He soon finds out that the only way to truly beat Komodo is to unlock the secrets of that book: the "manuscript of legend," which ends up in the hands of Komodo.
This movie is basically all about energy told through the spectacle of production. We see some expertly-directed scenes in this debut of Ronny Yu, later known for Fearless. I mean, only Yu would put so much passion into directed a montage of a martial arts master using his skills in the kitchen. The flashiness of these action sequences still has the general behavior of 80's and 90's martial arts cheese, but each scene is handled professionally, which means the spectacle here is lived up to the fullest potential that 90's family films would allow. On top of that, we get a careful balance of colors through some highly convincing set pieces, which is probably the best thing about the movie. Obviously, Ronny Yu did the absolute best that he could've done with what he was given.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of problems. First of all, our out-of-whack story really does need some fleshing out. While it's not a horrible story and there are some decent moments, the whole of story-world concept wasn't given the care that was needed. I mean, seriously? You couldn't think of anything besides "manuscript of legend?" Auryn, anybody? On top of that, while we have much better kangaroo costumes than Tank Girl, we also have some pretty cheap acting. The cast of the kangaroos were not given enough character development to work with, and our villain, who easily has the worst dialogue in the movie (do not think thoughts???) is basically a bad proto-Loki and Angus MacFadyen performance so poor it's often laugh-inducing.
I enjoyed it slightly more on the first watch for the surprise, but there really wasn't much of a downgrade here after this second watch. So Warriors of Virtue is basically a movie strictly for a Power Rangers fan. it's got most of the ingredients necessary for Power Rangers, but with an impressive production level. Yu justified his existence in Hollywood with his direction, although we rarely heard much from the four Law brothers who created the characters, largely because these characters were as thrown together for the 90's anthro buzz the same way Street Sharks and Biker Mice from Mars was, only being more tolerable. In other words, it's a great B-movie, although it's still not a great movie in general.
= 62
Ronny Yu's Directorial Score (3 Good vs. 0 Bad)
Freddy Vs. Jason: 75
Bride of Chucky: 63
Warriors of Virtue: 62
Score: 66.66 / 3
Lowering the movie 2 points brings Ronny Yu's position on the best directors list down from 191 to 197 between Rob Cohen and Michael Bay.
Does it come as any surprise to anyone here that I enjoy a good cheesefest? I've seen countless B-movies, largely of the brand of Band, a.k.a. Full Moon Features, and many others who followed suite like Fred Olen Ray and Dustin Ferguson. But I never said I considered these movies to be good ones, at least not usually. But it doesn't always have to be bad SFX and intentional poor quality. Sometimes, a good B-movie comes from something doomed to fail, but with an incredible level of effort put into it. Such movies become cult classics, and very few of these movies ever get me to watch it again. This is a tale of one such special movie, one with big problems but big strong points. And I mean FREAKISHLY big strong points.
Warriors of Virtue
(1997) - Directed by Ronny Yu
--------------------------------------------
Portal Fantasy / Martial Arts / Family
-------------------------------------------------
"To take a life, you lose a part of yourself."
So, take Ninja Turtles, add an A-Movie studio with Power Rangers B-actors, write a knockoff of The Neverending Story, give us a villain who's essentially Loki, and you get one of the most well-directed dorkfests of the 90's. Warriors of Virtue is a forgotten movie with a large amount of effort put into the production value, one with costumes almost as good as the ones from the earlier costume-driven film Nightbreed. But its story needs some work.
Middle-schooler Ryan has a limp and can't play sports, which he thinks will help him fit in. But he still has friends in odd places, like his martial artist / chef friend Ming, who gives him a rare book which he thinks will help Ryan with his life. When Ryan gets a chance to hang with the teen football players, he falls down a whirlpool in a water plant and ends up in the world of Tao, where he meets up with the guardians of that world: five Roo warriors who defend their people from the maniacal tyrant Komodo (not a lizard, human). He soon finds out that the only way to truly beat Komodo is to unlock the secrets of that book: the "manuscript of legend," which ends up in the hands of Komodo.
This movie is basically all about energy told through the spectacle of production. We see some expertly-directed scenes in this debut of Ronny Yu, later known for Fearless. I mean, only Yu would put so much passion into directed a montage of a martial arts master using his skills in the kitchen. The flashiness of these action sequences still has the general behavior of 80's and 90's martial arts cheese, but each scene is handled professionally, which means the spectacle here is lived up to the fullest potential that 90's family films would allow. On top of that, we get a careful balance of colors through some highly convincing set pieces, which is probably the best thing about the movie. Obviously, Ronny Yu did the absolute best that he could've done with what he was given.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of problems. First of all, our out-of-whack story really does need some fleshing out. While it's not a horrible story and there are some decent moments, the whole of story-world concept wasn't given the care that was needed. I mean, seriously? You couldn't think of anything besides "manuscript of legend?" Auryn, anybody? On top of that, while we have much better kangaroo costumes than Tank Girl, we also have some pretty cheap acting. The cast of the kangaroos were not given enough character development to work with, and our villain, who easily has the worst dialogue in the movie (do not think thoughts???) is basically a bad proto-Loki and Angus MacFadyen performance so poor it's often laugh-inducing.
I enjoyed it slightly more on the first watch for the surprise, but there really wasn't much of a downgrade here after this second watch. So Warriors of Virtue is basically a movie strictly for a Power Rangers fan. it's got most of the ingredients necessary for Power Rangers, but with an impressive production level. Yu justified his existence in Hollywood with his direction, although we rarely heard much from the four Law brothers who created the characters, largely because these characters were as thrown together for the 90's anthro buzz the same way Street Sharks and Biker Mice from Mars was, only being more tolerable. In other words, it's a great B-movie, although it's still not a great movie in general.
= 62
Ronny Yu's Directorial Score (3 Good vs. 0 Bad)
Freddy Vs. Jason: 75
Bride of Chucky: 63
Warriors of Virtue: 62
Score: 66.66 / 3
Lowering the movie 2 points brings Ronny Yu's position on the best directors list down from 191 to 197 between Rob Cohen and Michael Bay.