Wolf Warrior 2

Wolf Warrior 2 (Zhan Lang II) (2017)

Runtime: 123 minutes

Directed by: Wu Jing

Starring: Jing, Frank Grillo, Celina Jade, Gang Wu, Hans Zhang

From: A few different Chinese companies

I’m pretty certain it was a wise decision not to have seen the first Wolf Warrior. Apparently, that was far worse than this; the reason why I finally saw a motion picture known to me for the past 6 years: why, of course it was messageboard discussion. Yet another reason: this film made a LOT of money in China alone—the equivalent of over 800 million dollars! Might as well try to figure out why this was a white-hot success, right?

This is utter nonsense, where propaganda is a theme-as is seemingly common in many big Chinese pictures of recent times-a loose cannon soldier is indestructible as he gets into an adventure in Africa after being jailed for a time (long story) which involves warring factions in an unnamed country and… a virus. No comment on THAT aspect—or why I’m sure there were plenty of Chinese workers in that country. Trying to create a vaccine for that lesion-producing virus is a key plot point, along with Frank Grillo (Yes! His character was only known as BIG DADDY. No lie) attempting to stop our patriotic hero.

The CG is dodgy (there is a LOT of it, too) and so is the general plot; while acknowledging that, this had a lot of fervor that would be like catnip to a Chinese audience. There is also a lot of action, usually presented/filmed competently, and almost as much OOT insanity as I would expect in an Indian movie. That was the draw for me-and I’m sure many others-rather than the cogent plot or the viewer being invested in our hero Leng Feng attempting to find his fiancée, which is a minor plot point anyhow. Yeah, many innocents are gunned down as collateral damage and I get why some would find that in poor taste; to me, that’s what you sometimes got in 80’s trash also.

It's no surprise to me that star/director/writer Wu Jing would eventually find his way to Hollywood. I could speculate why it didn’t happen earlier (it may not be just because of COVID) but after 2021’s The Battle at Lake Changjin-even if I could stream the picture, it’d be best if I didn’t, due to how biased and untruthful it is about the Korean War-made even more money than Wolf Warrior 2, Jing will appear in… The Meg 2: The Trench. Random, but I imagine American films would like to use him for obvious reasons if they’re able to, no matter what we or they think about China and its government.

One last note: due to my schedule, I likely will post a review tomorrow (even though today was pretty rotten, it probably is best to view something to cheer me up), but it may be a few hours later than usual.