Movies: Police Story 2013

Movies: Police Story 2013

A very strange title for a show, with an additional 2013 added at the end of the movie title. This is because there seems to be another movie released previously called Police Story that seems to not be related to this movie so the 2013 is added to highlight that it is a different movie. This movie is produced by none other than Jackie Chan and gang and of course involves Jackie and his kungfu antics.

As per his usual style, its a action, thriller flick that includes cops. So is this a show that you should see alongside the slew of other cop related shows such as firestorm and the white storm? Or does this movie pale in comparison? Is it too similar that there is no novelty of watching this movie now? Lets read on and find out

Storyline 3.5/5

This movie is presented in a rather unique manner, using the main storyline which is the hostage situation that the star cop gets himself into, as the backdrop into explaining how did this cop actually get into this situation in the first place i.e. why he was targeted to be a hostage in the first place. 

As a result, the whole story only comes together at the end of the movie where you will realise oh this is the whole trigger for the entire movie. In more obvious terms, this movie is basically a hostage situation that adds more fluff to the movie by including the story telling of the reason for the hostage taking in first place.

Because of this however, the early part of the show is actually slightly confusing as to what is happening and does take a bit of effort to try to link everything together. Not entirely a relaxing effort if you ask me.

None the less because of this, the two hour movie has enough substance to remain interesting and compelling but it overall it takes a bit of effort and even at the end when everything is reveal, the storyline is just at best above average. Will cover this further in the character section.

Character 3/5

This is where this movie is slightly lacking. Besides the main character played by Jackie, all the other characters have very minor and slightly confusing roles. However, one aspect that this movie wants us to try to experience is to empathize with the villain in the way he does things or the reason behind them. However, I personally feel that there is too little effort put into trying to flesh him out maybe cause of the time, or cause of the way the movie is presented and in the end there is little pity or whatever you are supposed to feel for him.

There are also too many characters that merely just appear to help drive the story slightly but they just seem randomly added and add little extra value but might have added unnecessary complexity to the story.

The main character is also probably supposed to be emotionally messed up in some way or other due to the history of things that has happened to him. However, because of this, the things he does are sometimes rather confusing and strange which would sometimes make the movie slightly unbelievable.

Cinematography 3.5/5

This movie does some aspects of cinematography well, and some not so well which overall averages out. It does good slow motion scenes and improve excitement and action level. However, the scene of the movie is generally dark and sometimes hard to follow since the star actor is moving around in the pipelines which is supposed to be dark.

Also 90% of the movie is confined to that single one place which does not help to retain the attention of the audience. (The feeling of 1 and a half hour into the movie and you are still in the same place)

It does try to use the alternative vision method to keep the movie interesting i.e. the movie will play out a possible scenario in the thought process if the person takes this action, while in the end he will decide not to take that action and do something else after considering the possible outcome.

Music 3.5/5

There is actually visible emphasis on the music in this movie and overall it does support the overall feeling of the movie. Nothing to spectacular but its effect on the movie is definitely there.

Spectacle 3.5/5

For a action movie, it is above average but definitely not one of Jackie's best work thus far. Storyline wise is pretty unique, but slightly too simple overall with no final OH SO THATS WHAT HAPPENED feeling. When everything in the end is revealed the feeling is rather muted and not entirely a big deal. The movie doesn't really play on twists and turns of the mind but rather just adds complexity by purposefully omitting details to be revealed later. Hence the audience does not really feel that they were misled or misunderstood anything which takes out a lot of the fun factor of plot twists.

Overall

Storyline: 3.5 (Somewhat unique, but complex and not that enticing)

Character: 3 (Too little drawing of the audience to empathize with the characters, also too many characters that seem to just randomly be added to minor effect)

Cinematography: 3.5 (There is visible effort but not above the top yet. Also has some not too great cinematography portions)

Music: 3.5 (Visible effort but not too fantastic.)

Spectacle: 3.5 (At best it is just merely above average for both aspects.)

Overall: 3.4 (Its not above 4 so its safe to say that this is not a must see movie honestly. You probably will still enjoy it if you like the genre and are pretty interested in the story telling method. However, you won't particularly be impressed by any aspect of the show. Given its 2 hours long, its ok if there are no other movies that interest you as long as you manage expectation. Note that for a Jackie Chan show, this movie does not have particularly much fight scenes.)

Its the last day of the year so safe to say this will be the last review for this year. Hopefully for the new year I will be able to consistently review more things and do more reviews :) Thanks for the support for this year and see you all next year :D