It's a mystery to me why Wolf Warrior became one of the most successful cinematic franchises in the People's Republic of China.

The acting performances are cringe-worthy at times and especially lead actor Wu Jing has stiff body language yet overacts whenever he expresses himself verbally which makes for an unbalanced contrast. The special effects look as if they had been made by a company specialized on video games in the mid-nineties and the movie constantly exposes these flaws. The two worst offenders are the bullet fired in slow-motion in the beginning of the movie that had me laughing out loud and the pack of wolves that doesn't even look remotely close to real wolves. The story is also forgettable and unimaginative. The locations are equally bland and mostly limited to some exchangeable fields and forests. The movie also includes an unhealthy dose of Chinese propaganda but that often comes along with military action films.

Still, after a weak start, the movie still manages to end up being solid. The action scenes are intense and will keep the audience on the edge of its seat towards the end. The lead character who can be described as a resilient non-conformist with a soft core is easy to empathize with and his tough but tender female sidekick is also sympathetic. The film doesn't overstay its welcone with a concise length around ninety minutes which can be considered a strength these days.

In the end, fans of military action movies can give this solid average film a try and will get exactly what they can expect. The movie is comparable to franchises like Rambo and might sit well with a larger audience. In the end, the movie however fails to be innovative enough to stand out. Before revisting this film, I would rathet watch some old Chuck Norris movies again. These film have more charm and less fake animations.

WOLF WARRIOR is another military-themed slice of Chinese propaganda designed to show off the Chinese special forces at their very best. They're on the trail of a team of international mercenaries operating at the Chinese border, but the plot is merely an excuse for lots of flag-waving propaganda and furious action sequences typically involving expert sniper Wu Jing battling the bad guys. Truth be told, this is a deeply flawed film with some ridiculous moments; the CGI wolf attack is the nadir of the whole thing and the first half, concerned with training, slow and confusing. It's nice to see Jing playing the good guy for a change and very good he is too, although I could have done without the endless romance with Nan Yu's extraneous character. The good news is that the woodland-based action in the second half is very fine indeed, as is the frenetic opening sequence, and it all builds up to an exhilarating fight climax with the one and only Scott Adkins playing the baddie.

Leng Feng is a harden super-sniper in the Chinese Army. His unit takes down a drug operation. He disobeys orders to kill the gang-leader. He is reprimanded and is assigned to the special unit Wolf. Meanwhile somewhere southeast Asia, police tries to take down ruthless drug-lord Min Deng, the dead gang-leader's older brother. He coldly has his western mercenaries massacre the police and sends them to avenge his brother.

This is a Chinese military action thriller. It's a lot of action. Some of it is solid but it's rarely realism. They are literally fighting a pack of wolves at one point. Compared to Hollywood, the effects are slightly inferior. There is an impressive amount of real military hardware. It's better than most B-action movies but not quite at the theatrical level. Way too often, the soldiers are standing too close to each other. I guess it conveys something visually but it looks cheesy bad. Overall, I give the action a good passing grade.

The leading guy is hard which could be interpreted as stiff but that's the character. He takes some comedic turns which are quite jarring. The evil plot is questionable at best. It needs to be better written. It should be a simple revenge plot and not that hard to figure out. The good aspect is that the western mercenaries are formidable foes. There is also a cheesy battle over motivations. All of it adds up to a nice fight against tough villains. There is a fine B-movie here but a few stumbles keep it from being good.