Legion X recruits its disciples exclusively from those that are
physically or mentally handicapped in one way or another, like Ren Fang
(Lan Cheng-Lung), who is suffering from a brain tumor and has only got two
weeks to live, Jian (Juan Ching-Tien), who has been paralyzed in a
hit-and-run accident, Wong Dao, who has been mentally crippled ever since
his sister was raped and killed and who wants to find out who did it, and
Lua Xiao, a lovely schoolgirl who ... I don't know, she just likes to set
things on fire. All of these characters are not only healed of their
shortcomings, they even get superpowers - but they also have to do the
Legion's bidding, and if they don't do so in a certain time, the bracelet
that gives them their powers will kill them. Ya Zhu (Terri Kwan) is a
TV-journalist and Ren Fang's girlfriend who tries to find out how her
boyfriend suddenly got healed from brain cancer and how her daddy is
linked to the underworld. Enter a cabdriver, who's also with the Legion
(she's not yet even aware about) and who offers her answers: Fact is, the
Legion has been split in two, and while Ren Fang and the others have been
recruited by the evil faction that wants to conquer the world, her father
is with the good ones who want peace. Somehow Ya Zhu believes the cabby. Ya
Zhu's dad wears one of the Legion's most important artefacts around
his neck, the book of secrets (or something, saved on a microchip after
the original got destroyed), so of course the evil Legion is after him and
sends its newest recruits to retrieve the book, promising the one able to
kill Ya Zhu's dad a place in the inner circles of the organisation (while
the others have to die) - so in the showdown its supernatural martial arts
and magic versus magic and supernatural martial arts, and eventually, Ren Fang is
left the last man standing, but he's so seriuosly wounded that he has to
be saved by the cabdriver in return, who takes the book of secrets from
him before nursing him back to health. At her father's funeral, Ya Zhu
tells Ren Fang she will do anything to find out who has killed her dad,
not knowing it was actually him ... In the end, we see Ren Fang accepted
into the inner circles of the Legion. Over-convoluted
comicbook-superhero-style fantasy
spectacle that makes not half as much sense as it's supposed to, tells a
rather silly and simplistic story, and despite efforts to the contrary
fails to present us with fleshed out characters. The flashy, trendy, music
video-style directorial effort doesn't really help too much in bringing
the story across either, as it invariably favours style over content. The
movie is not a total failure though mainly thanks to its expert pacing, to
its great exposition (a schoolgirl burning down her home and those -
including her parents and litte brother - in it) that's a bit of a promise
that simply isn't kept, and thanks to its imaginative and completely over-the-top
finale that's quite simply a beauty to watch (despite a few
less-than-perfect CGI effects). All this does of course not make a good
film, but at least an entertaining one.
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