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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Warriors of Future’ on Netflix, VFX-Heavy Hong Kong Sci-Fi With A Debt To The MCU

Where to stream:.

Warriors of Future

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Hong Kong sci-fi actioner Warriors of Future was first announced way back in 2015, with a different title and different director. But after production delays, COVID delays, and post-production delays – VFX shots are very labor-intensive, just ask Marvel – Warriors finally debuted to big numbers at the Hong Kong box office, with Louis Koo, Sean Lau, and Carina Lau frontlining the cast. In the future, humanity’s already on the ropes with warfare, disease, and climate disasters. It’s only then that a predatory alien lifeform arrives…

WARRIORS OF FUTURE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: In the future, frequent outbreaks of war have only become more deadly with the invention of military robots. Climate disasters have wrought seemingly irreparable environmental damage. Famine is widespread, disease is rampant, and humanity has built protective domes over key cities called “Sky Nets.” Add to all of this the arrival of a meteor, which when it cracks open spreads a viral alien plant form called “Pandora” across the earth’s surface, and brave air combat team commander Johnson Cheng (Sean Lau) has a lot of ground to cover. When Colonel Tam (Carina Lau) arrives with orders from the top brass to attack the alien with a new kind of growth-retarding “gene bullet” – “If we can release P7N9 inside Pandora’s pistil, we can stop it from growing…” – Cheng gives Tyler (Louis Koo) orders to gather his team and gas up their aircraft. They’ve got an alien plant to kill.

It’s not nearly so simple, of course. The operation is plagued with danger and error from the start, and soon it seems clear to the ACU that someone is meddling with their equipment and safety. Tam is a hard ass, no doubt about it, but she does seem willing to let Cheng and Tyler work. What about quiet, scheming general Sean Li (Nick Cheung)? Or Pandora itself? Not only is the alien presence sentient, it has minions of its own in a jaw-snapping and many-clawed throng of monstrous insects that look like beetles crossed with big cats.

With the bombs Li and Tam want to drop as a last resort looming, and mil-spec military robots threatening their operational sector, Tyler, Cheng, bumbling private Connor (Wan Guopeng) and “Skunk” (Phillip Keung), a loose cannon ex-member of the ACU, must work against the increasingly bad odds to recover and deploy the gene bullets, save any errant human civilians still in the kill zone, and hopefully keep their own necks intact. It’s a deadly gambit. But if anyone can save the little people from a hungry plant-based alien and maybe the entire earth from further destruction, it’s these guys. Right?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? The 2021 South Korean sci-fi film Space Sweepers , while also indebted to the MCU and also caught up in COVID release date weirdness, was nevertheless a riotously enjoyable visual spectacle. And Warriors of Future shares cast members Louis Koo and Carina Lau with Dynasty Warriors , the big-budget fantasy epic from 2021 based on the Japanese video game franchise.

Performance Worth Watching: Koo is resolute here as the super soldier Tyler, and Carina Lau adds a few dashes of graceful subtlety to her take on the buttoned-down Colonel Tam. But it’s Phillip Keung who steals the show as Yau, aka “Skunk,” the disgraced former air combat teamer whose unconventional skill set and outsized personality become integral to the suicide mission.

Memorable Dialogue: “Tell your friend I’m not here to rescue him. And not only did I do it, I also did it beautifully!” The constant sniping between former brothers in arms Skunk and Tyler stays steady through so many daring escapes and close shaves, it soon becomes clear that this is the two friends’ actual love language.

Sex and Skin: Nothing here.

Our Take: As viewers, the commoditization and Marvelization of sci-fi action has trained our brains on what to expect. Production design is one thing, and in Warriors of Future , the ACU’s “skyfish” owes a lot to the MCU’s Quinjet, even if in practice it more closely resembles a UH-60 Black Hawk chopper crossed with a V-22 Osprey. And while military robots were stomping through movies long before the rise of Marvel – with all of its future tech and bursting bugs, Warriors has a spiritual descendent in Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers – the mechanized suits that Tyler and his team wear in Warriors are on a direct line with Tony Stark’s ever-evolving Iron Man get-up, from the inside-helmet comm systems to arms with super strength and numerous onboard weapons systems.

In Warriors of Future , that brain training we’ve all been subjected to doesn’t stop at simple aesthetics. It’s inherent in fight sequence choreography, too, and the accompanying sound and editing packages, and in Warriors , whenever a mech-suited soldier is slammed into a busted-up car, or fires a gatling gun at an aggressive and advancing military robot, it’s with a sense of sound and vision that we’ve heard and seen before. Warriors of Future looks pretty slick and sounds plenty loud. But the film hangs its sci-fi action on how much of it there is, and not on much of anything else, whether in nuance or plotting. Beyond all of the crashing tech and admittedly impressive creature effects, we’re left with actors like Phillip Keung, Carina Lau, and Louis Koo to make what they can out of a threadbare script.

Our Call: STREAM IT for the strong visual sense of Warriors of Future , which certainly grabs a ton of inspiration from the MCU but isn’t afraid to be as big and loud of a sci-fi outing as it possibly can. But there’s some enjoyable character work here, too, especially from wildman Phillip Keung.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

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Warriors of Future Reviews

Warriors of Future is an enjoyable, if middle-of-the-road sci-fi action flick. If you are looking for something from the genre...this succeeds enough to make it worth the time investment...

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jan 4, 2023

It's a pretty crazy movie, but at the same time, a lot of it doesn't seem that far removed from Michael Bay and James Cameron epics.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 3, 2023

While not one for audiences looking for anything sensible or with substance, as an action-packed, cheerfully foolish crowd-pleaser it’s hard to fault Ng Yuen-fai’s debut, not least since the special effects impress way above and beyond

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 16, 2022

Beyond all of the crashing tech and admittedly impressive creature effects, we’re left with actors like Phillip Keung, Carina Lau, and Louis Koo to make what they can out of a threadbare script.

Full Review | Dec 7, 2022

There’s modest pleasure to be had from reveling in its sheer excessiveness.

Full Review | Dec 6, 2022

An ambitious spectacle that deserves respect for its intention. Its execution is an entirely different matter.

[Blessed with] with a fast-paced rhythm and most of all, a better-than-expected technical showcase in special effects and action set pieces.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 2, 2022

Many of the fantasy action elements are fun to watch, even if they are plucked from significantly better sci-fi movies.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 22, 2022

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Warriors of future.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 0 Reviews
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Common Sense Media Review

Violence, peril in frenzied dystopian sci-fi adventure.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 13+?

Sci-fi action violence throughout. Fighting with giant robots, plant monsters, s

Any Positive Content?

Chinese movie with a Chinese cast.

Violence & Scariness

Sci-fi action violence throughout. Fighting with giant robots, plant monsters, spaceships, lasers. Fighting with missile launchers, guns, rifles. Implied suicide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Diverse Representations

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Warriors of Future is a 2022 Chinese sci-fi movie in which a group of ragtag soldiers must save the world from monstrous plants that landed from a meteor. Expect a fair amount of sci-fi action violence. There's fighting with robots, lasers, missile launchers, rifles, and guns; implied suicide; and monster imagery: The plants are somewhat reminiscent of the plant monsters from I nvasion of the Body Snatchers . It's a dystopian sci-fi film in which the world teeters on the brink of total environmental catastrophe. Mild infrequent language includes "hell." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In WARRIORS OF FUTURE, Earth is on the verge of total environmental collapse. Wars between robots have added to the chaos, and the only thing saving humanity from extinction are giant biodomes known as Sky-Nets. As if that isn't enough, a giant meteor has fallen to Earth that carries Pandora, a plant creature that has grown to dangerous proportions after drinking water. However, scientists have also discovered that Pandora has the potential to clean the polluted air -- provided that a virus is injected into its pistil. The mission is given to Sean Li (Nick Cheung) and his ragtag gang of renegade soldiers and pilots. Sean and his crew soon find that taking on Pandora might be more than they bargained for, but they must find a way to defeat it and save humanity.

Is It Any Good?

This is a bombastic sci-fi whose excesses would make big-budget Hollywood directors blush. Warriors of Future is the highest-grossing Chinese-language movie in Hong Kong, and it's not difficult to see why. It's a frenzy of CGI battles, blockbuster movie heroes ... and a killer plant. It's a pretty crazy movie, but at the same time, a lot of it doesn't seem that far removed from Michael Bay and James Cameron epics.

It isn't the easiest movie to follow. There's a whole lot of exposition at the beginning, more than what's needed. There are some plot twists, but they're not exactly surprising. The characters are basically stock action movie heroes and villains, and therefore none of them really inspire the audience to root for them. The most inspired part of the movie is this idea of an invasive plant from outer space that can both destroy and rescue humanity, but that part of the story is likely to be lost in the cacophony of lasers, missile launchers, spaceship crashes, and more. The excess ultimately proves to be the movie's undoing.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about sci-fi movies like Warriors of Future . How is this similar to and different from other sci-fi adventures you've seen?

How did the movie use science fiction to address real-world concerns like potential environmental catastrophes?

Was the violence necessary to the movie, or was it excessive? Why?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : December 2, 2022
Cast : Louis Koo , Ching Lau Wau , Carina Lau
Director : Yuen Fai Ng
Inclusion Information : Asian actors, Female actors
Studio : Netflix
Genre : Science Fiction
Run time : 112 minutes
MPAA rating : NR
Last updated : February 17, 2023

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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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‘Warriors of Future’ Has Stunning CGI, But Is Netflix’s Wannabe ‘Avatar’

The film became the highest-grossing Chinese-language movie ever in Hong Kong over the summer. Now that it’s on Netflix, it seems more of a pale imitation of James Cameron’s opus.

Nick Schager

Entertainment Critic

Getting a jump on Avatar: The Way of Water , Warriors of Future is a CGI-ified Hong Kong sci-fi extravaganza that pits man’s industrialized might against the forces of nature. Here, that’s epitomized by a giant alien plant that shares a name, Pandora, with the intergalactic setting of James Cameron’s franchise.

That’s not the only element that Ng Yuen-fai’s film duplicates from Cameron’s oeuvre, as it also borrows liberally from Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Aliens —not to mention Transformers , Iron Man , Edge of Tomorrow , Pacific Rim , RoboCop and video game series like Halo and The Last of Us . Originality, suffice it to say, is not its strong suit.

Still, if one can set aside the fact that there’s virtually nothing new about this import, there’s modest pleasure to be had from reveling in its sheer excessiveness. Now on Netflix—following a summer theatrical premiere in Hong Kong, when it became the city’s most successful Chinese-language movie ever — Warriors of Future is the feature directorial debut of Ng Yuen-fai, a visual effects star who puts all of his digital talents to use during the course of this chaotic saga.

Computerized flair is the film’s primary calling card, thanks to prolonged sequences of futuristic mayhem that feel like superior versions of an Xbox or PlayStation title’s animated cutscenes. From airborne calamities to on-the-ground skirmishes to man-vs-robot showdowns, there’s no shortage of stylized action tailor-made for genre aficionados. If those sights are modeled after more illustrious predecessors, Ng nonetheless gives them a captivatingly glossy sheen.

Warriors of Future sets its scene through a barrage of backstory exposition that would be more overwhelming if it hadn’t already been heard many times before. Thanks to rapid advances in technology, civilization engaged in endless robot-facilitated war, and when coupled with overdevelopment, the Earth became an ecological nightmare plagued by disease, famine and toxic air that could only be managed through the construction of giant bio-domes known as Skynets.

As if that weren’t problematic enough, while those shields were being built, a giant meteor fell to Earth, bringing with it Pandora, a ferocious plant-like creature that grew—to destructive ends—when it came into contact with water. Pandora was the apparent final nail in humanity’s coffin, except that, in a conveniently ironic twist, the vicious vegetation also had the power to purify the atmosphere!

Pandora is thus both the destroyer and potential savior of the world. In a city known as B16, Dr. Chan Chung Chong (Tse Kwan-ho) discovers a virus that, if injected into Pandora’s pistil, can stop it from growing—thereby relegating it to simply an environmental good. To do this, Dr. Chong and Colonel Tam Bing (Carina Lau) turn to commander Sean Li (Nick Cheung), who allows this plan to go forward with the aid of the Air Combat Unit (ACU) led by Tyler (Louis Koo) and his right-hand man Johnson Cheng (Sean Lau).

Their mission is of the utmost urgency because an impending rainstorm will enlarge Pandora to catastrophic size. Moreover, if Tyler and Johnson can’t accomplish their goal in a tight three-hour window, their superiors will turn to Plan B: using a bomb to kill Pandora and, with it, the 160,000 civilians in the immediate vicinity.

Tyler and Johnson won’t stand for that collateral damage, although Warriors of Future undercuts such a threat by depicting B16 as completely vacant; only in a couple of late shots do we see any actual at-risk city inhabitants. Getting hung up on particulars, however, isn’t worthwhile, since Ng’s prime interest is razzle-dazzle. Tyler and newbie comrade Connor (Wan Guopeng)—whose girlfriend Lucy (Qian Wu) works in the ACU’s headquarters—are outfitted in battery-powered armor that gives them super strength and speed (as well as jet-assisted leaping ability), and they’re accompanied on their assignment by two enormous robots.

When the duo’s ship goes down in the heart of Pandora, Johnson enlists the aid of his and Tyler’s estranged driver Skunk (Philip Keung), who talks about Invasion of the Body Snatchers and resembles a braided-hair extra from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome . It’s not long before they’re all banding together to take down their common enemy, as well as to protect a young girl, Pansy (Xiaoxia Cheng), whom they rescue along the way.

Pansy serves as a surrogate daughter for Tyler (whose biological offspring died of cancer), as well as functions as the proceedings de facto Newt (from Aliens ). Warriors of Future eventually has its heroes battling bug-like extraterrestrials and menacing machines in set pieces that are as lavishly staged as they are thoroughly imitative. Any number of stateside directors could make a reasonable plagiarism case, but that only partly diminishes the thrills generated by Ng’s direction, which places a premium on gleeful virtual reality-esque craziness.

Nothing in the film seems to adhere to the laws of physics, and that often renders it a high-tech cartoon—a situation exacerbated by an overblown score (courtesy of Chan Kwong-wing) that bludgeons every scene into rousing orchestral-swell submission. Fortunately, it’s a frequently striking-looking affair, its hectic chases and violent fights executed with swift dynamism.

It's a shame that Warriors of Future is only available via streaming in America, given that it’s been fashioned for the big screen, where its state-of-the-art spectacle would be far more at home.

Even so, it’s easy to admire the polish of its flashy showstoppers, which overshadow the clunkiness of its storytelling, be it a betrayal that everyone over the age of five will see coming from the outset, or a climactic race-against-time that’s dramatized with a surplus of sound and fury and a dearth of logic and lucidity. Lau Ho-leung and Mak Tin-shu’s script makes no bones about its influences, but their plotting relies so heavily on one-dimensional characterizations, relationships and dilemmas that the entire narrative is told in veritable shorthand.

Warriors of Future won’t earn any screenwriting awards. On the basis of its CGI chaos and madness, however, it just might win over American sci-fi fans eager for a large-scale December blockbuster—and, in doing so, give birth to the interstellar sequel teased by its coda.

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READ THIS LIST

Review | Warriors of Future movie review: Louis Koo’s sci-fi passion project sets new standards for Hong Kong special effects, but is too generic to stand out internationally

Starring Louis Koo and Lau Ching-wan, this big-budget sci-fi has impressive visuals and a strong cast, but lacks an engaging narrative and relatable characters
Its story of Hong Kong under siege is one we’ve seen before, and on a grander scale, in Hollywood movies. With no fresh ideas, Warriors fails to stand out

A hugely ambitious and expensive production that has spent so many years in production as to have become a legend of sorts in the Hong Kong film industry, this passion project of Louis Koo Tin-lok – the popular actor turned movie mogul – finally arrives to show us the future.

Or at least that’s the intention.

Special effects aficionados can probably breathe a sigh of relief upon seeing the wall-to-wall dystopian visual details – which occasionally merge with Hong Kong landmarks – in Warriors of Future , the directing debut of visual effects veteran Ng Yuen-fai.

In a simplistic narrative that exists solely to string together the action set pieces, we’re introduced to an alien plant named Pandora that arrived at district B16 – an apocalyptic Hong Kong – with a giant meteorite three months earlier; how that impact didn’t kill off everyone already might be the actual mystery.

Anyhow, with the plant expected to destroy the city through its rapid growth during an imminent rainstorm, a small air combat team led by Tyler (Koo) and Johnson (Lau Ching-wan) is tasked with the last-minute mission of locating Pandora’s pistil and reprogramming its genes just in time to save the 5.6 million people in B16.

But not everyone in military headquarters wants them to succeed – and, to cater to audiences who prefer to watch this type of movie with their brains shut down, the secret villain reveals the reason failure is preferable in an early scene.

Despite featuring an enviable cast that also includes Philip Keung Ho-man as a former lieutenant and buddy of the two leads, Carina Lau Ka-ling as a supportive colonel, Tse Kwan-ho as a genius scientist and Nick Cheung Ka-fai as B16’s conflicted leader, Warriors of Future shows little care for character development or humour.

Many of the fantasy action elements are fun to watch, even if they are plucked from significantly better sci-fi movies. There are armour suits that look like Iron Man-lite; incoherent battle scenes respectively featuring said giant plant, some zombie insects, and a few random robots; and even a walk-on little girl that suddenly tags along for the heroes to rescue.

Ultimately, Warriors of Future stands more as an important milestone for the local industry – it’s a lock for plenty of technical prizes at the next Hong Kong Film Awards – than an irresistibly entertaining movie that will entice audiences to watch it time and again.

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Warriors of future.

Directed by Ng Yuen-fai

When a meteor carrying a destructive plant strikes the world, a suicide squad is given hours to save their post-apocalyptic city from total collapse.

Louis Koo Lau Ching-wan Carina Lau Philip Keung Hiu-Man Tse Kwan-Ho Janice Wu Wan Guopeng Nick Cheung Ng Siu-Hin Ariel So Yuet Yin He Zi-ming Steve Chan Wai-Hung Ken Law Ho-Ming Hedi He Guoxuan Tony Wu Kevin Chu Lau Ho-leung Cheng Xiaoxia Man Kit Cheung Pancy Pui-Sze Chan

Director Director

Ng Yuen-fai

Producer Producer

Writers writers.

Lau Ho-leung Mak Tin-Shu

Cinematography Cinematography

Ng Man-Ching

Art Direction Art Direction

Kurt Papstein Chris Pong Alex Mok Siu-Chung

Composer Composer

Chan Kwong-Wing

Costume Design Costume Design

Ahong Cheung

One Cool Pictures Media Asia Films World Universal Culture Limited iQIYI Pictures Tianjin Maoyan Media CMC Pictures Shenzhen Film Studio

China Hong Kong

Releases by Date

15 aug 2022, 05 aug 2022, 25 aug 2022, 02 nov 2022, 02 dec 2022, releases by country.

Digital 12 Netflix
Digital K12 Netflix
Premiere Hong Kong International Film Festival
Digital PG13 Netflix
Digital Netflix
Digital PG-13 Netflix

101 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by More_Badass ★★★½ 1

The most PS3-third-person-shooter film since Spectral, and just as much of a high-concept high-spectacle entertainment rollercoaster. Warriors of Future is a fun medley of genre influences - a little Cameron here, a bit of Ghost in the Shell and Binary Domain there, some Edge of Tomorrow and Vanquish power-armor, a dash of Jurassic Park talon tapping, and so on - as Louis Koo & co. brawl, hatchet, machine-gun, and explode waves of creatures, mechs, and robots. The simple mission-focused plot is entirely comprised of cliches, exposition, and world-building, only taking a breath during the briefest of flashbacks while Ng Yuen-Fai packs the runtime with blockbuster set-pieces. Come for the rare HK sci-fi fare; stay for the impressively-rendered, ambitious, and nearly nonstop action.

Review by Austin Burke ★★½ 2

⚠️50% 2022 list - Click HERE YouTube video review - Click HERE

A meteorite brings an extraterrestrial life to the earth. When powerful alien creatures threaten humanity, Commander Sing Lee's elite forces are almost wiped out, and the surviving soldier Tai Loi discovers an even bigger conspiracy.

Sometimes you get a movie that is epic, ridiculous, and slightly-cringe, yet all of these attributes allow it to feel authentic and worthy of a watch. Whether intentional or not, there is something about this experience that embraces the madness and isn’t afraid to let loose. Being a massive blockbuster from Hong Kong, there are obviously going to be some differences in style and technique with this one compared to other big blockbusters. From a visual…

Review by Tao A ★★★½ 2

This was Louis Koo’s passion project that took 8 years to bring to fruition and it’s worth watching almost exclusively to see what a 52-year-old Hong Kong movie superstar thought was the coolest shit in the world…. 8 years ago. For a movie called Warriors of Future this sure feels like a relic of the past, blissfully ignorant of the storytelling and seemingly visual "advancements" made during the last 20 years since the days of Final Fantasy The Spirits Within and Appleseed. As you can probably guess I say that in the most endearing way possible because there’s an undeniable charm to how sincerely Koo and I’m sure the director who was a CG artist handpicked by Koo believe in this material, in current year. Peak Binary Domain/Lost Planet cinema.

Review by Yo_Roboto ★★★½

Exosuits and robots and monsters doing battle after a global ecological collapse and also an unrelated alien invasion, all mashed together in what feels like a feature length video game proof-of-concept trailer…

aka "ALL MY FAVORITE THINGS: THE MOVIE"

For all the cool people in the audience, it’s basically the anime Appleseed plus the video game Crysis 3 plus the classic Heisei Godzilla opponent Biolante...

As a guy who has a blog called "Concept Robots" bookmarked, there's a chance that this isn't actually a movie and I'm just having a fever dream about my browser history.

Review by James Marsh ★★★★ 1

What a relief, after something like a ten-year gestation period, Louis Koo’s hugely ambitious passion project turns out to be great fun and a bold step forward for Hong Kong cinema. It’s ludicrous sci-fi hokum but it’s made with passion by people who clearly care. CGI is legit, pace & plot are slick & coherent. Good guys are good, bad guys are bad, & the action is on point. That’ll do, Louis. That’ll do.

Review by Cinema_Strikes ★★½ 5

Louis Koo personally takes on Audrey II, xenomorphs, Bayformers, and Nick Cheung in Dr. Strangelove cosplay.

Audacious in its efforts to match the budgets and special effects of both Hollywood and the Chinese Mainland action movie machine, but unfortunately, other than the pleasures of seeing some of our favorite HK actors and actresses (and hearing Cantonese), this doesn’t have a ton new to offer - I mostly tuned out whenever CGI cartoon robots and creatures were hitting each other.

It doesn’t help that I’ve never really understood the appeal of Louis Koo, he’s like Jamie Foxx for me - not a deal breaker but not someone I’m ever excited to see. But good on him for trying.

Review by Juju Hot Takes 🇨🇦 🇻🇳 ★★★½

A huge mess mixed between Alien , Edge of Tomorrow and Pacific Rim. A dystopian future where soon the planet will be in danger because of a meteorite and this is where the scenario becomes implausible , because we go from a fireball to a giant plant that threatens to destroy everything and gets worse every time it rains. Between the traitor scientist who sends his robots to block the rescue, the hideous monsters eating everything in their path and the full CGI video game art direction, I felt like I was playing a game of Battlefield with my boyfriend lol. 100% entertainment, 100% guilty pleasure ,this kind of over-the-top rubbish totally works for me :D

Asian movies

Review by comrade_yui ★★★★ 2

warriors of future , in its best moments, reminded me of albert pyun's deft ingenuity with this type of cyberpunk post-apocalyptic narrative. i'm in love with the imagination of this; all the concepts and storytelling beats are themselves cliches, but the way they're executed is really interesting, with visually dense panoplies of rain, fire, smoke, a great eye for atmosphere, crisp sound design for all the near-future gear, and taking full-advantage of the genericized science-fiction toolkit to give you very solid sequences with an eye for the kineticism that can be found only in a digital space, but they also built real scifi vehicles for this, real powered-armor suits, and mix them effectively with cool CGI monsters and robots, it's the…

Review by Wonggifs ★★★★ 4

Terrific, ambitious, blockbuster filmmaking, even if the script feels very flat in places, and every character is a walking bag of cliches. The fact that this was made with a fraction of the money of say, a Marvel movie, yet somehow looks better in many respects is a small miracle.

Although those characters aren't hugely compelling, the constant barrage of action is really, really fun, as is the novelty of seeing Louis Koo, Lau Ching Wan, Carina Lau and Phillip Keung battling robots, monsters and mechs. I suspect the poor box office in China means that the teased sequel will probably not be made, which is a real shame, though one lives in hope.

Review by Jessica Yeung ★★★ 21

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Not as bad as I would have thought - 3 stars as below:

1 star: Louis Koo's team not only devoted heavy investment in the film; we should be understanding that for a China-HK co-production film with ideological restriction (mostly main melody - PRC ideology), this hasn't been made like Lake Changjin, it's already quite good. Plus all the leading actors/actresses are HK actors/actresses. Yes, they aren't the young ones. But for blockbuster (also because this's a heavily-invested sci-fi film), it seems using young, lesser-famed actors/actresses is a bit risky. The storyline actually resembles: a) Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (environmentalism); b) Matrix (those bugs are like sentinels); and c) EVANGELION (those robots). It's also wise to streamline…

Review by Filipe Furtado ★★

Louis Koo has for the past decade being in a one man mission to keep Hong Kong film industry viable by himself and as someone who have a lot of affection for it,I'm glad man keeps going. Warriors of Future which he produced and by all accounts was the main creative force is a very open attempt to show local cinema can do an F/X heavy sci-fi action film like Mainland China or USA can. As such, it seems happy to operate as a demo reel and hardly does much to distinguish itself. Warriors of Future success is tied to how much it is a mediocre movie, so it is hard to really fault it much for it. On the…

Review by Sudhakar Kumar ★★★

A decent film that could be your one-time watch. It's a mix and match of various plotlines from popular sci-fi and superhero films. It sets new standards for Hong Kong special effects.

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Review: Warriors of Future

As big of a fanatic of 70s-90s Hong Kong cinema as I am, I have a tremendous blind spot when it comes to more modern HK films. I’m aware of some and have seen all of Wong Kar-Wai’s films, but I would struggle to tell you about any major HK releases from the last five years or so. I even mistakenly thought Detective Chinatown 3 was an HK production simply because the lines have been blurred between mainland China and HK cinema.

While I will work to rectify this in the future, for the moment, I was intrigued by the Louis Koo-produced sci-fi action film Warriors of Future . There is this fascinating story about the marketing in China where the film initially flopped in the mainland and the campaign shifted towards showing Louis Koo being sad . I’m not sure if the guilt trip really worked, but when the movie eventually opened in Hong Kong, it went on to become the highest-grossing film of 2022 for the region.

All of that preamble is to say that I wasn’t sure what the hell to really expect. A lot of modern Chinese productions tend to be overwrought with CG effects in an attempt to ape Hollywood productions, but Hong Kong is different. It used to be an industry where stunt actors would put themselves in very real danger just to get an amazing shot.

Warriors of Future is definitely a more modern film in that sense, but it’s actually quite a bit of fun.

Warriors of Future | Official Trailer | Netflix

Warriors of Future Director: Ng Yuen Fai Release Date: August 5, 2022 (China), August 15, 2022 (HKIFF), December 2, 2022 (Worldwide Netflix) Rating: TV-14

In what is the biggest mistake the film makes, the entirety of the background for Warriors of Future is given in an exposition dump right at the beginning. In 2055, the overuse of military robots has destroyed most of Earth and hastened the spread of global warming. With more natural disasters occurring every day and many children being born with birth defects, the government decides to fund a program that will shield each city from the elements by surrounding them in bubbles. Hilariously, these are called Skynets.

During the construction of a Skynet in district B16, a meteor crashes into the city and spawns an alien plant. That plant not only overruns the city but births creatures that start to ravage the people and threaten to dismantle humanity. This plant is dubbed Pandora (because allegory), but it’s not entirely deadly. The plant actually begins to purify the air in B16. Now, scientists are scrambling to discover a way to utilize Pandora to save the planet and restore civilization to the beauty it once had.

So right away, that’s a lot. That could be an entire film unto itself, but Warriors of Future would rather get to the part where Louis Koo and his fellow actors are battling aliens and robots than actually spend time on worldbuilding. That’s not necessarily a bad decision, but it does make the first 20-ish minutes of this film feel rushed and bland. It’s not exactly clear why you should care about anything.

Louis Koo stars as Tai Loi -hilariously renamed Tyler in the Netflix version-, a soldier working for the ASU that is tasked with neutralizing the Pandoran threat in B16. Alongside Tai Loi is Cheng Chung-Sang (Sean Lau), a commander that refuses to accept that robots are the future of military warfare. In some brief bits of dialogue, we learn that Tai Loi is so committed to stopping the aliens because he lost his daughter due to an illness caused by global warming. Cheng, on the other hand, doesn’t want to let the government decide what is right or wrong.

With constant rainfall causing Pandora to grow stronger and a big storm forecasted in the next few days, a plan is put in motion to neutralize the threat once and for all. Led by Colonel Tam (Carina Lau), she explains their mission of injecting the pistil of Pandora to reprogram it and how dangerous the stakes are. On the flip side, if the mission fails, Plan B is to bomb the city and sacrifice 160,000 lives in the process. Obviously, Tai Loi and Cheng aren’t happy but are willing to risk their lives to save others.

It’s all a bit derivative of other alien invasion films with a ham-fisted message of choosing your own destiny. At one point, a character alludes to Invasion of the Body Snatchers and how that film ends with humanity dying. Instead of dying, though, Tai Loi and crew have some alien ass to kick.

I’m skipping over bits of setup here, but you really don’t need to learn all of the characters before going into this film. Even after watching it, the things sticking with me aren’t the acting, writing, or even the general direction of the film. What stands out is how a film was made with roughly a quarter of the budget of a Marvel movie and it looks 10 times better.

I’m not kidding when I say that, either. The CG effects in this film are pretty decent. You’ll never once believe you’re looking at real-life and the very odd transitions between actors in a costume to then being fully animated are jarring, but this looks so much better than a majority of modern Hollywood action movies. When things really get into gear, everything is CG and the consistency is there to stop you from nitpicking.

The film also has some incredible forward momentum that never lets up. There are jumps in logic where characters suddenly appear as if ordained by God, but the frenetic action doesn’t give you a lot of breathing room to really focus on that. I’m also not exactly sure why the action tends to be framed in spinning takes (At points, the camera does 360s in random directions), but it’s all very well thought out and executed.

Towards the end, there is some massive struggle on a highway where a giant robot is chasing down our heroes and it is really thrilling. It absolutely looks like a video game (in fact, it reminds me almost exactly of Binary Domain ), but it’s just plain fun. Try as I might to be a pedantic ass and shit all over this movie, I just gave up by this point and embraced the lunacy.

You can possibly complain about the art direction here as it all has a kind of generic sci-fi look. It’s certainly expensive looking, but then it also looks heavily inspired by things such as Dead Space , Ghost in the Shell , Destiny , and Call of Duty . On the very same day as its US release, a game called The Callisto Protocol was released and the suits of armor here are practically identical to that.

As a short aside, make sure to change the audio to Cantonese. For whatever reason on Netflix, the film defaults to Mandarin and I was very confused by that. A Hong Kong production should be in Cantonese and the film was very obviously shot in that language. Certain actors may have been speaking Mandarin as the lip-syncing occasionally matches, but it otherwise is not correct. Netflix has done things like this in the past with foreign films (this year’s RRR is available only in Hindi despite being filmed in Telugu), so I thought it was a mistake.

When you do have everything straight, the acting is quite good. Louis Koo has made a name for himself over the last few decades as one of Hong Kong’s most charismatic actors and his natural charm is on display here. The plotting might be incredibly basic and devoid of depth, but there are moments with Tai Loi’s daughter that just hit really well. Despite all of that exposition in the beginning, we get short flashbacks to her time in the hospital and they are edited effectively.

It’s those small moments that show a lot of thought was put into Warriors of Future . None of the ideas are truly unique and I can’t point to a single moment where I saw something that truly blew me away, but this isn’t some slapdash film. Action-first is its MO, but then there are layers here.

I mentioned above how the lines between mainland China and HK cinema have become blurred, but Warriors of Future is almost a pro-Hong Kong anthem. There’s a sense of antiestablishmentarianism that permeates the proceedings. I’m not sure if this specifically relates to the HK film industry, but Pandora can be seen as China slowly infecting Hong Kong while Tai Loi and his crew represent locals from Hong Kong. They are firmly against letting the plant ravage the city they love.

As the film moves on, Colonel Tam becomes more and more adamant about enacting Plan B, but Tai Loi won’t let that happen. He is firmly for sticking with the original plan and that plays like an allegory for Hong Kong’s independence. They will never give up the battle for their freedom. You could also see it as cooperation with China, as the plan isn’t to destroy Pandora, but reprogram it. This isn’t revolutionary stuff, by the way, but it gives more depth to Warriors of Future than its alien invasion setting might imply.

By the end of the film, I had grown to really enjoy Warriors of Future . It certainly won’t go on to become Louis Koo’s most accomplished film, but it may just become his most memorable. Having turned in record profits in Hong Kong (possibly due to Hong Kongers embracing the fact that the film bombed in China), it’s clear that something about this movie is striking a chord with audiences. Maybe people just want a dumb action movie during these harsh times.

Whatever the case, I think the biggest triumph of Warriors of Future is that it proves you don’t need massively inflated budgets to make decent films. Hollywood should really take note here as I’m getting tired of $350 million+ films that have the depth of a puddle and surprisingly deficient action.

What it lacks in originality, Warriors of Future makes up for with bombastic action, solid performances, and surprisingly decent CGI.

Warriors of Future

Story: In the not so distant future, advancements in technology made it possible to fight wars mostly with robots. For this reason, earth stumbles from one war to the next. But due to climate change, natural disasters and virus outbreaks, the result of humanity exploiting the planet, the air is hardly breathable anymore. By now, people have to live under an artificial dome, called "Skynet", in order to get clean air. One day, though, a meteorite hits earth. In it there is a plant lifeform people soon call "Pandora" and it grows in the rain at enormous speed, which is why it has already taken over a large part of a city. Surprisingly, the arrival of this new lifeform also has a positive effect: the plant filters the toxins out of the air and produces oxygen. Nevertheless, Pandora soon threatens to take over the entire country and then all of earth. Fortunately, some scientists have found a way to stop the plant's growth and take advantage of only the beneficial properties of Pandora by reprogramming its DNA. Colonel Tam (Carina Lau) therefore sends Tyler (Louis Koo) and some other men to find the plant's root and carry out the gene reprogramming. However, a lot goes wrong during the mission and Johnson (Lau Ching-wan) has to go on a rescue mission, on which the future of humanity relies too.

Review: My expectations for this blockbuster flick, which came out three years later than planned, were rather low. Too many dumb action movies like "Shanghai Fortress" immediately came to mind. On the other hand, sometimes you just need something like that in order to turn off your brain, or simply because you want to tear apart a movie in a review again. Even though "Warriors of Future" might have the title of a B-movie from mainland China, it's... surprisingly good for what it aims to be. This is partly due to the well-known actors, but above all due to the wonderfully captured action and the really impressive special effects. Of course, the movie still has some of the typical weaknesses, such as a story that is not worth mentioning since you have seen it countless times before. In addition, the story generally lacks emotions.

The robot suits are especially fun, as they are reminiscent of a previous version of the Iron Man exoskeleton. Thanks to them, the heroes of the story are able to defend themselves against the various adversaries to begin with, as the suits increase their fighting power and jumping skills. This means that you also get to see some parkour-like scenes that can be very entertaining. The overgrown or partially collapsed buildings are also captured beautifully, and the plant monsters' first appearance kind of reminds you of a horror movie, at least until they are beaten to a pulp in superhero style. The action here is sometimes pretty original too. There are some scenes that are by far more interesting and gripping than those of most Marvel movies. It's not just computer-generated robots beating each other up, instead a lot of thought was put into planning the action scenes, even though the same cannot be said about the story.

Even though the directing is pretty well-done, there are also a few inconsistencies that are almost typical for Hong Kong cinema. Moreover, there are numerous coincidences, for instance when the pin of a hand grenade is found - like the needle in a haystack - as an important clue in a pile of rubble. The characters are actually quite flat too, but Louis Koo ( "Line Walker 2" ) and Lau Ching-wan ( "Detective vs. Sleuths" ) give them a certain touch and the chemistry between them works. Without them, it would probably be even more obvious that the movie is failing on an emotional level. But after a weak start, the action is absolutely convincing thanks to some nice variety. The flick is not longer than it needs to be either. Despite some obvious negative points, this makes "Warriors of Future" into one of the best B-movies of recent years, and when it comes to the action, it is even able to top many Hollywood flicks. Mindless, but enormously fun action, which is conveniently available on Netflix too.

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Warriors of Future (2022)

Welcome to Vibes, TMDB's new rating system! For more information, visit the contribution bible .

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When a meteor carrying a destructive plant strikes the world, a suicide squad is given hours to save their post-apocalyptic city from total collapse.

Ng Yuen-fai

Mak Tin-Shu

Lau Ho-leung

Top Billed Cast

Lau Ching-wan

Johnson Cheng

Colonel Tam Bing

Philip Keung Hiu-Man

Lieutenant Taron Yau Tai-long / Skunk

Tse Kwan-Ho

Dr. Chan Chong-Chung

Wan Guopeng

Connor Kwong

Nick Cheung

Commander-in-Chief Sean Lee

Full Cast & Crew

Discussions 2

A review by MovieGuys

Written by movieguys on december 9, 2022.

Rather uninspiring. In spite of sporting a cast of well known Asian action actors, predominantly from Hong Kong and some top shelf special effects.

The best the writers could come up with is a plant from outer space. Does that sound a little dull, well yes, that's because it is. There is a degree of decent action, in the form of aggressive alien creatures, that live on the giant plant and a conspiracy with attack robots. That said, this feels like padding for a core idea that was never great to start with.

In short, nothing special, which is unfortunate given the quality cast and money... read the rest.

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Original Title 明日戰記

Status Released

Original Language Chinese

Revenue $100,730,000.00

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Warriors of Future

The biggest, most delayed and talked-about Hong Kong film in years finally lands on Netflix…

For followers of Hong Kong cinema, it’s really quite a relief that mega-budget, all-star sci-fi epic Warriors of Future has finally arrived, having been announced way back in 2015, being shot in 2017, and having originally been slated for release in 2019. With various trailers, images and featurettes having been dropped over the years, with no sign of the film itself, it’s been hard not to wonder whether it actually existed, or if audiences would ever get a chance to see if it lived up to all the hype. Following its bow at the Hong Kong International Film Festival earlier in the year, the film has now been released internationally via Netflix, bringing it to screens probably a lot smaller than it was designed to be watched on.

Marking the directorial debut of visual effects artist Ng Yuen-fai, the film is set in 2055, with the earth having been decimated by wars, environmental disasters and something to do with robots, and with a giant alien plant called Pandora having crash landed in B-16 (a future Hong Kong). Although the plant has destroyed most of the surrounding area, with further growth and carnage threatened by a coming massive rainstorm, it also has the ability to cleanse the atmosphere, and so a scientific solution is found in the form of gene bullets, which will stop it from spreading while allowing it to continue the good work.

Of course, delivering the gene bullets to Pandora’s heart is no easy task, and a task force is pulled together, headed up by B-16 air force commanders Tyler (Louis Koo) and Johnson Cheng (Sean Lau), who load up on weapons and futuristic suits and venture into the ruined city, watched over from home base by Colonel Tam Bing (Carina Lau). Things quickly go south when the team come up against vicious insectoid aliens, and matters are made worse by an evil commander (Nick Cheung), who clearly doesn’t want the mission to succeed, sending massive robots to try and kill the brave soldiers.

Warriors of Future has been pitched from the start as Hong Kong’s answer to Hollywood blockbusters, and on that score it certainly delivers, with jaw-dropping visuals from the first frame. Ng Yuen-fai has worked on a number of big productions over the years, including the likes of Re-Cycle , The Warlords and Bodyguards and Assassins , and here he really outdoes himself, the film being spectacular throughout, both during its massive action set pieces and in the design and realisation of its ruined future Hong Kong. Although the film undeniably has a video game air at times, it sets a new standard for special effects in Hong Kong cinema, and for Chinese cinema in general, improving considerably on the likes of The Wandering Earth .

At the same time, Ng keeps the focus firmly on the action, rarely pausing for breath or giving time for audiences to dwell on the film’s many imponderables, and with a surprisingly sensible running time of just over an hour and a half, there’s a pleasing lack of the usual filler material. Though the alien and giant robot designs aren’t exactly original, the quality of the CGI helps distracts from this, and the relentlessness with which Ng keeps throwing things at his characters and the audience makes it a fast-moving rollercoaster ride – while it’s great that the film is getting such a wide release via Netflix, it’s really a shame that most audiences won’t get to experience it on a massive screen with a booming sound system.

Unsurprisingly, the plot itself is absolutely ridiculous and rarely makes any sense. From the amusing randomness of the giant plant at the centre of the story through to the fact that there’s no reason whatsoever for Nick Cheung’s villainous commander to be doing any of his heinous deeds or to be trying to hide them from Carina Lau’s colonel, especially since they’re effectively in the same room. Thankfully, Ng is clearly aware that the audience for the most part won’t care about such niceties, or about his brazen lifting from a long, long list of other films, and Warriors of Future works well as a kind of chaotic greatest hits package of sci-fi carnage. There’s a welcome lack of pretension to the proceedings, with none of the usual drawn-out death speeches or laughably noble nationalism that has dragged down similar Chinese productions, and this makes the film’s frequent logic lapses all the more fun.

It certainly helps to have a cast of this calibre, and Louis Koo and Sean Lau are hugely entertaining in the lead roles, playing off each other like old friends through a mix of brotherhood and bickering – brave viewers might try a drinking game while watching, taking a shot every time one of them comes back from dead to improbably save the other at the last moment. Philip Keung is reliable as ever, and while Carina Lau doesn’t have much to do, Nick Cheung is great value as the villain of the piece, somehow managing to chew the scenery despite not saying much, and even going so far as to wear a black leather glove on one hand.

It really is great to finally be able to see Warriors of Future , and after years of suspecting the worst, the film comes as a very welcome and entertaining surprise indeed. While not one for audiences looking for anything sensible or with substance, as an action-packed, cheerfully foolish crowd-pleaser it’s hard to fault Ng Yuen-fai’s debut, not least since the special effects impress way above and beyond what might have been expected.

Warriors of Future is streaming now on Netflix.

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Warriors of Future (2022) Review

“Warriors of Future” Theatrical Poster

Director: Ng Yuen-Fai Cast: Louis Koo, Lau Ching Wan, Carina Lau, Nick Cheung, Philip Leung, Tse Kwan-ho, Janice Wu, Eddy Ko Hung, Sakurako Okubo, Wan Guopeng Running Time: 99 min.

By Paul Bramhall

It may sound optimistic, but I’d like to think that years from now, fans of Hong Kong cinema will look back and say 2022 way the year the territory once more found its voice. The likes of Table for Six , Mama’s Affair , and Chilli Laugh Story have all brought in healthy box office returns amongst HK audiences, with the focus on more intimate, locally focused tales proving to be a winning recipe. However, standing tall over all these productions is a movie which couldn’t be more opposite in tone, scale, or any other form of cinematic measurement, because 2022 was also the year that finally saw Louis Koo’s long gesticulating passion project Warriors of Future hit the big screen (and for the rest of the world, Netflix).

With a filming schedule that began in 2017, and what felt like more teaser trailers and posters being released over the following 5 years than you could shake a stick at, currently only Juno Mak’s Sons of the Neon Night can hold a candle to how long audiences have had to wait for the finished product to arrive. Koo’s passion for the Hong Kong film industry and nurturing new talents within it is well known, and it was well reported that a goal of Warriors of Future was to prove Hong Kong could produce big budget blockbusters capable of competing with Hollywood.

Before even discussing the movie itself though, Koo’s persistence must be admired. While I’ve no doubt if he made the decision to film Warriors of Future in Mandarin and have the characters be a part of China’s military, the funding floodgates would have opened in the blink of an eye, but he unwaveringly decided to keep things local. So while the Mainland has cranked out its own sci-fi flicks over the last 5 years with the likes of Bleeding Steel , Shanghai Fortress , and The Wandering Earth , the good news is Warriors of Future comes with no such Mainland Melody undertones (and let’s be honest, for long time fans of HK cinema, doesn’t that grammatically challenged title already warm the heart a little?).

Not that Hong Kong cinema has a particularly strong pedigree in the sci-fi department, with Koo’s own previous appearance in the genre involving his interactions with a gigantic alien cat in 2017’s Meow . With company like Future X-Cops and City Under Siege , opting for a slice of sci-fi action may seem like a risky proposition, however it’s one that Koo has banked the best part of 10 years of his life on if you include pre-production. Thankfully the plot for Warriors of Future doesn’t involve any alien cats or inflatable Aaron Kwok’s, instead opting for the tried and tested formula of an alien threat that’s going to destroy everything in its path if not stopped by a heroic military unit (re: Louis Koo).

In the not-too-distant future the Earth has been ravaged by war thanks to the advancement of technology meaning battles are now fought with robots rather than humans. This should be a positive, but human nature being what it is, the ease of using technology to fight has actually made countries more willing to go to war than ever before. All this war has seen climate change go off the charts, so most cities now live under a ‘Skynet’, basically a large dome that keeps the air breathable and pollutants out. Hong Kong is one such city, however things go awry when a gigantic alien meteor crashes in the local vicinity, unleashing a gigantic alien plant called Pandora that destroys everything in its path, and only grows bigger when it reacts to water. That makes for bad news whenever the weather forecast is rain.

Luckily for the population living in Pandora’s path, scientists have figured out that its destructive ways could be modified and used for the greater good. If only there was a way to drop a ‘gene bullet’ that the scientists have developed into Pandora’s pistil (this already feels like the most ludicrous sentence I’ve ever written), then it could be re-engineered to produce hydrogen and make the air breathable again. With an epic storm brewing that would bring so much rainfall the damage Pandora would inflict is unthinkable, it’s decided by the miliary brass that it’s now or never to go on a pistil hunting mission and release the gene bullet, and it all needs to be done before anyone needs to use an umbrella. Enter Louis Koo as the brooding military man capable of pulling off such a dangerous mission, and Lau Ching-wan as his comrade in arms, who together (with some nondescript supporting characters) will make HK liveable again!

While that sounds like a lot of plot on paper, onscreen it can basically be summarised as “we need to find this alien pistil and detonate the gene bomb in it.” Indeed Louis Koo may be the driving force behind Warriors of Future , but he’s not the one in the director’s seat, with visual effects artist Ng Yuen-Fai making his directorial debut. How much enjoyment audiences will get from Yuen-Fai’s direction with likely depend on how much value is placed on aspects of filmmaking like characterisation, as the 100-minute runtime very much plays out like there’s a special fx guy at the helm. Any exposition is only there to do the bare minimum of getting from one action scene to the next, and characters are barely even one-dimensional, given the thinnest of motivations and back stories to constitute their existence.

Despite this, it’s still not enough for Nick Cheung’s ( The Trough , Bodies at Rest ) villainous commander who created Skynet. Wheelchair bound and armed with a number of lines that can be counted on 2 hands, the usually lively Cheung puts in a Steven Seagal-esque performance (ok maybe that’s a little unfair, since the wheelchair obviously means he’s seated the whole time) devoid of any emotion or effort. It almost feels like parts of his performance are likely on the cutting room floor, as he does little during his time onscreen other than stare blankly into the distance and offer the occasional smirk.

Of course Warriors of Future is ultimately there to show off its special effects, and to that end it delivers with aplomb. Any production like this is going to be an easy target, however for the most part the effects work is solid, and more importantly, delivers the intended thrills. It almost feels like the effects team worked chronologically, as some initial shots are less than convincing (for example the crafts landing behind Koo and Ching-wan in one of the initial scenes fail to look like part of their surroundings), however once it gets to the action scenes the quality increases dramatically. An airborne chase sequence where Koo and co. follow a chemical trail through Pandora’s vines to locate its pistil offers up the first of several set pieces, and fully exploits its B-movie premise of them having to fend off a gigantic killer plant to entertaining effect.

Jack Wong ( Limbo , Coffin Homes ) is on action choreography duty, a veteran of more than 25 years who, similar to Yuen Bun, has also been able to successfully adapt his skillset to incorporate modern technology into his action direction. Here he still gets the chance to flex his fight choreography skills, when the suited-up soldiers are forced to face off against killer robots involving a mix of blades, axes, and anything else they can get their hands on. While it could be argued that none of what’s onscreen is particularly ground-breaking, it’s also never anything less than entertaining, and the breathless action bombardment that assaults the screen for most of the runtime does a good job of preventing the viewer dwelling on any plot holes.

Does Warriors of Future succeed in its goal of showing Hong Kong can make big budget sci-fi blockbusters with the best of them? I’d say it does. It may come at the expense of things like characterisation and logic, which could be a dealbreaker for some (ok, for many), however for this HK cinema fan at least, such flaws are forgivable. What can’t be denied is that under that big budget sci-fi sheen, Warriors of Future feels like a Hong Kong action movie through and through, from the shameless sentimentality to the themes of brotherhood. Hollywood style? Sure, but a Hong Kong heart, and for that, Koo and the team should be applauded.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6.5/10

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Warriors of Future Ending And Mid-Credits Scene, Explained

Directed by Yuen Fai Ng, Netflix’s ‘Warriors of Future’ is a Hong Kong sci-fi action thriller film. Set in the year 2055, the story revolves around an alien plant called Pandora. When a meteorite strikes a region called B16, a giant plant starts proliferating and devouring anything and everything in its vicinity. However, the plant also purifies the atmosphere and positively impacts the planet.

Tyler and his soldiers are tasked with stopping the plant’s growth while still allowing it to purify the air. But the mission goes downhill, and Tyler loses most of his soldiers. As the survivors try to accomplish their goal, a bigger conspiracy unravels. Here’s everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Warriors of Future.’ SPOILERS AHEAD!

Warriors of Future Plot Synopsis

The film begins with Tyler’s voice-over explaining how humans live in a post-apocalyptic world . The rapid evolution of technologies led to various crises, such as wars, famine, and an atmosphere filled with toxins. Major General Sean Li builds Skynet over cities to purify the air within these massive dome-like structures. When the meteor hits Earth and Pandora starts growing, the HQ sends Colonel Tam with a possible solution. Tam and Dr. Chang Chung Chong walk Sean Li and Commander Johnson Cheng through the plan. The doctor possesses a gene bullet that comprises a virus, P7N9. The virus must be dropped into Pandora’s Pistil for the plant to hibernate. With this, the plant will stop growing but will continue to purify the atmosphere.

Colonel Tam also suggests plan B, which involves bombing the area and killing the plant. But the catch is that 160,000 people in the B16 district will die too. Sean Li is against the idea because he has spent a lot of time, money, and resources building the Skynet and doesn’t want to stop anytime soon. However, the Colonel reminds him to follow the HQ’s order. When Tyler and his team listen to the plan, Tyler speaks against it because of how dangerous the mission is. Nevertheless, Tyler sets out on the mission because it can give humanity a new chance at life. Several mishaps occur when the Air Command Unit tries to execute the plan.

First, two aircrafts, known as skyfishers, are unable to communicate with each other during a critical situation. Second, Pandora starts growing and knocks out two skyfishers, and the soldiers in them die. Third, an Orca, one of the larger ships, mysteriously explodes. Only Tyler, Connor, and another soldier survive, but their skyfisher is wrecked, and they have no way of contacting the team. So, Johnson, an ex-soldier, Taron Yau, goes to rescue Tyler while Tyler and the survivors find a way to fix their injuries, get the gene bullet, and inject it into the pistil. As the narrative progresses, we realize the aircraft mishaps weren’t coincidental. Now, the mission’s success and humanity’s second chance are at stake. Will Tyler be able to plant the gene bullet in Pandora’s pistil? Well, let’s find out.

Warriors of Future Ending: Does Tyler Plant the Gene Bullet in Pandora’s Pistil?

Tyler and his team reach the pistil together, and Commander Johnson plants the gene bullet in Pandora’s pistil, thus neutralizing its growth. However, they face numerous challenges to succeed at their mission, which begin after Tyler’s skyfisher crashes. Tyler, Connor, and Lincoln go to a hospital to fix Lincoln’s injury but encounter unknown creatures who devour human flesh. Meanwhile, Commander Johnson decides to go to the site and, along the way, meets a former friend and soldier, Taron Yau. The two reach the hospital just in time to save Tyler and Connor, but Lincoln gets killed by the creature.

The newly formed team establishes contact with the base. Colonel Tam directs the team to the wrecked aircraft with the gene bullet. She also instructs Lucy at the base to find out why one of the Orcas exploded and why the skyfishers lost signal. Lucy asks her boyfriend Connor to retrieve the head of a robot that was present in the Orca to understand what happened. Tyler retrieves the gene bullet, and Connor finds the robot’s head but also spots a grenade pin next to the robot.

Soon, the team discovers that Sean Li is responsible for the blast and the signal loss. He instructed a robot to remove the grenade pin and used another machine called Timora to jam all the signals in the area. When Johnson and Tyler confront Sean Li over the phone, Sean Li doesn’t back down. Instead, he instructs three robots and two machines called Enigma and Timora to kill the entire team. Sean also disables communication between the base and the team. The team gears up for the fight ahead and valiantly faces all opponents. They take down the machines one by one but find it incredibly difficult to fight Timora.

Somehow Tyler and Taron Yau manage to bring down Timora and disable its signal jammer. Meanwhile, Connor creates a hole in the ground for the team to get inside Pandora’s pistil. When Commander Johnson enters the pistil, he realizes that the unknown creatures have come out of this place. He throws the gene bullet inside the pistil, which explodes, releases the virus, and stops Pandora’s growth.

From the beginning, we get hints that Tyler and his team will be able to pull off this job. One of the recurring dialogues in the movie is, “We write the ending of our own stories.” The line indicates that Tyler and Johnson were always meant to succeed at their mission which is precisely what happens. At one point, when Tyler thinks that Johnson is dead, the latter comes back and saves the day. It only shows how determined everyone on the team was to accomplish the mission. In the end, Tyler repeats the same dialogue, emphasizing that the team has achieved what they wanted.

Does Major Sean Li Die?

Yes, Major General Sean Li dies after shooting himself with a gun. After Johnson and the team learn about Sean Li’s actions, Colonel Tam finds out too. Sean Li decides to disrupt the mission because if it is successful, the air quality will improve, and nobody will require Skynet. So, until the end, he does everything he can to ensure the team fails at the mission. Even after Colonel confronts Sean with the information, he seems unfazed because the task is close to dying. But Johnson and his crew manage to pull off a suicide mission and make it out alive.

So, Sean Li kills himself, and there are two significant reasons behind this. Sean is an arrogant man who believes Skynet is the future, and nobody can change that. He even tells Johnson, “Skynet is me, and I am Skynet.” When Johnson successfully plants the gene bullet, Sean Li’s ego and arrogance are crushed. Besides this, everyone knows about his actions, so he will soon get arrested. The arrest would mean facing the public, and the team, which would be more humiliating for the man. So, to avoid going through all this, Sean Li kills himself. To him, it is better to die than to become a disgrace in people’s eyes.

Are Tyler and Johnson Going to the Moon?

Tyler and Johnson are most likely going to the moon in a spaceship. In the mid-credits scene, we see the two men inside an aircraft, but this time both are wearing suits and helmets that astronauts usually wear. Johnson briefs Tyler on the mission and says they will only observe the signal and its source. They are not going to engage with it in any manner. The mission is strictly for collecting information and nothing more.

After this, the aircraft starts shaking, but after flying for a few seconds, the turbulence stops. We see Tyler and Johnson’s spaceship move toward the moon, and the movie ends. Considering the movie’s genre, there’s a chance that Tyler and Johnson are going to find signs of alien life on the moon or check some base station on the natural satellite, which might unfold into a whole new adventure.

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There’s a great high-concept premise at the start of “Consumed,” an otherwise frustrating creature feature about a married couple who go camping and then fall apart. A rift has already formed between Beth ( Courtney Halverson ) and Jay ( Mark Famiglietti ) before they set out on a long hike, so tension only continues to grow once they’re attacked by a crazed outdoorsman ( Devon Sawa ) and what may or may not be a flesh-eating monster.

There’s more than enough situational peril baked into Beth and Jay’s marital problems to sustain a brisk 97-minute runtime, though Sawa’s haunted and generically standoffish antagonist provides a welcome dramatic complication. Still, it’s way more interesting to see Beth realize that she and her partner are no longer in sync, especially given how thoughtlessly overbearing Jay can be.

Beth’s a breast cancer survivor, and Jay doesn’t really know how to talk with her about what she went through. She’s also plagued by nightmarish, PTSD-style images of her body rebelling against her, either during or following a traumatic medical procedure. Jay clearly wants to make Beth feel seen and appreciated but doesn’t seem to understand or be particularly receptive to Beth’s feelings. For him, this trip is a victory lap; for her, it’s maybe the end of their time together. Then, they discover animal tracks filled with what looks like creamed spinach. A bear trap, a monster, and a raft of expository dialogue further complicate matters.

Like a lot of recent trauma-focused horror movies, “Consumed” eventually settles on its most troubled protagonist. The filmmakers’ focus on Beth might not have felt so confining if Jay was either further developed or reduced to a more convincing foil for Halverson to play off of. At first, Jay seems like a real enough problem, especially when he hovers and then smothers Beth with attention. Famiglietti makes it easy for you to believe that this type of well-meaning but unlikable personality might exist, particularly when he tries to make a ritual of burning Beth’s hospital ID bracelet. If you’ve ever been reluctantly admitted to a hospital, you know how difficult it can be to not want to scream at your uncomprehending friends and/or relatives. This preliminary section of “Consumed” credibly evokes that struggle.

Quinn, Sawa’s deranged hunter, then eclipses Jay as the main focus of Beth’s anxiety. He withholds crucial information from Beth and Jay for reasons that are somewhat obvious, but still unfold in their own time. Quinn’s also dealing with his own trauma, as you can see by the way he puffs on Beth’s cigarettes or mutters in sentence fragments. Sawa’s commitment to his role is undeniable, but Quinn never seems more than an obstacle in Beth’s path.

Still, once Quinn shows up, “Consumed” becomes more about surviving a “The Twilight Zone”-worthy threat that’s mostly implied but also occasionally visualized through suggestive, modestly-budgeted creature effects. Fans of Glass Eye Pix founder Larry Fessenden ’s horror movies will already be familiar with the voracious fiend at the heart of “Consumed.” However, its identity is never as well considered here as in Fessenden’s soulful low-budget chillers.

Instead, “Consumed” becomes more about the tension between Beth and Quinn, leaving Jay to fade into the background. That sort of shallow focus might have been forgivable in a movie where Beth and Quinn share or at least talk to each other in a way that teases out their respective hang-ups. Unfortunately, the dialogue in “Consumed,” credited to screenwriter David Calbert , focuses more on pushing the plot along than unpacking either Beth or Quinn’s feelings.

It’s always hard to know why on-camera performances don’t play well off of each other, especially when their characters are at cross purposes with each other. Based on what’s on-screen, both “Consumed”’s dialogue and the direction fail to expand on the movie’s distinguishing concern with Beth’s emotional turmoil. Too much conversation weakens the impact of the monster attack scenes that will presumably hook most viewers in the first place. Some pseudo-folksy dialogue also rolls off of Sawa’s tongue like a wad of sandpaper, like when he clocks Beth’s post-cancer infirmity: “You’re sick, ain’t you?” That sort of line needs a bit more context to land properly, and “Consumed” doesn’t have nearly enough padding to make it stick.

A sense of rhythm or frustrated chemistry might have made a difference in “Consumed,” at least enough to stick to the movie’s by-the-numbers conclusion. Unfortunately, clumsy and mostly inert dialogue often pre-emptively steps on Beth and Quinn’s actions, making it even harder to anticipate whatever comes next. It’s also hard to shake the feeling that we’re watching inexperienced or simply ungrounded performers struggling to enhance threadbare material. Some exciting moments are scattered throughout “Consumed,” but they’re never as compelling as the movie’s initial promise.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in The New York Times , Vanity Fair , The Village Voice, and elsewhere.

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Film credits.

Consumed (2024)

Courtney Halverson as Beth

Mark Famiglietti as Jay

Mitchell Altieri
David Calbert

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'Alien: Romulus' is another franchise movie that brings more nostalgia than novelty

Justin Chang

Alien: Romulus is the latest movie in the long-running Alien sci-fi/horror series. But it actually takes place shortly after the events of the very first film: Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic, Alien . 20th Century Studios hide caption

If you’ve gone to the movies lately, you might have noticed — or even purchased — one of those novelty popcorn buckets promoting the year’s big blockbusters. Maybe you dug into the gaping maw of a Dune: Part Two sand worm — or, more recently, into the hollowed-out head of Deadpool or Wolverine.

Now, there are at least two popcorn-bucket models promoting the new movie Alien: Romulus . One is shaped like the head of a Xenomorph, that most terrifying of horror-movie demons, though I suspect without the drooling retractable tongue. Another bucket comes affixed with a Facehugger, a skittering critter that’s famously fond of attaching itself to a human’s head and laying an egg in their throat.

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These concession-stand gimmicks may be new, but the iconography of Alien: Romulus could hardly be more familiar. That’s no surprise; these monsters, brilliantly conceived decades ago by the Swiss artist H.R. Giger, have kept this series alive. In recent years Ridley Scott, the director of the unimprovable 1979 Alien , has tried to push the franchise in a more philosophical direction, in movies like Prometheus and Alien: Covenant . By contrast, Alien: Romulus , which was directed and co-written by the Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Alvarez, has no such weighty ambitions. It’s an efficient and reasonably entertaining thriller that, like a lot of franchise movies nowadays, traffics more in nostalgia than novelty.

Álvarez does set his sights somewhat high; he means to take us back to the franchise’s glory days. The story, set in the year 2142, is sandwiched between the events of the first Alien and James Cameron’s hugely entertaining 1986 sequel, Aliens . As in those films, starring the incomparable Sigourney Weaver, there’s a tough-minded female protagonist. Her name is Rain, and she’s played by Cailee Spaeny, the versatile young actor from Priscilla and Civil War . There’s also a friendly, not entirely reliable android sidekick — Andy, played by the English actor David Jonsson. We’re in a period that you might call late late capitalism, where villainous corporations rule the day and Rain, like most people her age, is part of a heavily exploited labor class, working off debts that will never be repaid.

Cailee Spaeny as Rain Carradine in Alien: Romulus. 20th Century Studios hide caption

And so when she and Andy hear of a possible way out, they seize the opportunity along with a few friends — never mind that it means heading up into space and boarding a large rustbucket ship that’s not quite so abandoned as it appears. The ship has two sections, named Remus and Romulus, which partly explains the Roman mythology-referencing title. As for what lurks aboard the ship, Álvarez knows there’s no point in building mystery or suspense, and he unleashes his army of Facehuggers and Xenomorphs almost immediately. His human characters, however, do intend to put up a fight.

Álvarez has a knack for rebooting horror properties, having made his debut with a fresh 2013 spin on Evil Dead . He followed that with the walking-on-eggshells thriller Don’t Breathe , about a group of young burglars trying to rob a blind homeowner. There are actually some amusing plot similarities between that movie and Alien: Romulus , right down to a third-act twist that pushes things into see-it-to-believe-it body-horror territory.

Álvarez is a strong director of action, and he riffs inventively on classic Alien beats. The Xenomorphs, as usual, have corrosive acid for blood — a detail that the movie exploits ingeniously in a suspenseful, gravity-defying set-piece. And there’s at least one memorable moment that reminds us that the Xenomorphs, with their phallic heads and goopy secretions, are among the most psychosexual of cinematic nightmares.

In the end, though, Álvarez’s command of craft only gets him so far. The problem isn’t just that the characters, apart from Rain and Andy, are pretty bland monster fodder. It’s that while the director seems content to update the Alien movies — with young, fresh faces and state-of-the-art technology — he has no apparent idea how to push them forward. His boldest and least successful gambit is to resurrect a key figure from an earlier film — a visual-effects coup that tries to honor the series’ roots, but feels more like a desecration. I’ll never pass up an Alien movie, but I do hope the next one has something more than elaborate fan service in mind. Dwelling too obsessively on the past is no way to guarantee a franchise’s future.

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Warriors of Future ending explained – what happens with Pandora?

We discuss the ending of the Netflix film Warriors of Future, which will contain spoilers.

There are many sci-fi films that take audiences on a ride to the future, but some just feel repetitive. There are also sci-fi films that try to incorporate too many things, and then the story gets lost in the madness. We have gotten to a point in our society where the future is here and now, so the technological advancements shown aren’t as impressive as they used to be. If anything, audiences are more terrified about the evolution of tech than fascinated by the endless possibilities.

This is where Warriors of Future turns into more of a horror film than an action, sci-fi adventure. When a meteorite brings extraterrestrial life to the earth, the alien creatures threaten humanity. Commander Sing Lee’s elite forces are almost wiped out, and the surviving soldier Tai Lo discovers an even bigger conspiracy, as per the synopsis on IMDB. Right from the beginning, director Yeun Fai Ng was able to create an emotional tie to how the world used to be.

We see a father and his daughter looking at how clean our planet used to be, and it quickly cuts to the current state of the world; colorless, dying, and grim. We see that military robots have become the standard for war, and now every country has created its own version.

On top of that, there is no clean air, so they develop something called the Skynet to filter in clean air. But once this alien rips through with the meteor, it becomes its own ecosystem and engulfs tech towers across the city. The government ops call the creature Pandora, and for a good portion of the movie, they try to kill it.

There are three different sections of the robot militia that go and attack Pandora in different ways. One man is in charge of arming a bomb, and another two soldiers are trying to take down a robot that looks like a creature.

They are navigating their way through a hospital corridor, and the flashbacks keep happening to when they first started their journey. The Pandora creature was releasing toxins into the air that would build the ecosystem over the city.

The soldiers were able to develop a vial to kill off the plant if they got close to its center. So in order to kill Pandora, one soldier had to go into its heart to place the man-made virus into its system. They did manage to do this and save the whole city.

There were celebrations after Pandora slowly started to retract, and the Earth started to look clean again. It does leave it open-ended as the same soldiers try flying to the moon after their planet is healed just to see what else is out there. If it does well on Netflix, there could be a sequel and a brand new discovery in the galaxy.

What did you think of the ending of the Netflix film Warriors of Future? Comment below.

Article by Amanda Guarragi

Amanda Guarragi joined Ready Steady Cut as an Entertainment Writer in June 2022. She is a Toronto-based film critic who has covered TIFF, Sundance Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, and HorrorFest International. Amanda is also a growing YouTuber, with her channel Candid Cinema growing in popularity.

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No accents. No prosthetics. The spy game. Why ‘Slow Horses’ is Gary Oldman’s dream job

Gary Oldman stretches out along an outdoor planter for a portrait.

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With its third season, Apple TV+’s spy drama “Slow Horses,” based on Mick Herron‘s series of spy novels, doles out the smallest revelations about Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House, played by Gary Oldman.

“Another layer of the onion is peeled back,” says Oldman, whose Lamb doesn’t mind that the world sees him as a slovenly, flatulent insult hurler leading a team of failed operatives. Of course, he’s more complex than that. “There’s also a great moral compass, it’s very strong, and there’s loyalty too. Even though he might be a taskmaster, he’s very loyal to his team.”

The series received nine Emmy nominations, including a lead actor in a drama nod for Oldman.

Explain one of Jackson’s superpowers: He’s a human databank when it comes to his MI5 rejects. How is that?

That’s the spycraft. He knows where everybody lives. [He’s] followed them. He knows what they’re up to. That’s what I think is great about the spycraft of Lamb. It’s the clothes, it’s all that; you keep people guessing. In Season 4, we have a new head of the security department at MI5. She thinks she’s got his number immediately and completely underestimates him. The idea behind the dirty [raincoat] and the smell of whiskey and cigarettes is that he’s playing chess. That’s one of the great joys of playing him. That and the fact that he has no filter, that he’s utterly direct. The reason we enjoy it as an audience, and I enjoy playing it, is because we can’t be like that in our lives. And on top of it, we give you James Bond, but warts and all, with dirty laundry and stale toast.

UNITED KINGDOM, LONDON: March 29, 2022- Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden star in the new Apple TV+ thriller series "Slow Horses", about MI5 agents put out to pasture but are not quite done yet. They are photographed at the Ham Yard Hotel in London. CREDIT: CHRISTOPHER L PROCTOR/ FOR THE TIMES

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Would James Bond casually assemble an intruder alarm, as Lamb does, out of nails, a knife and a can of Pringles?

That’s the thing: With moments like that, you see the years of experience. It’d be easy to brush him off. “He doesn’t care very much. He drinks too much. Not very healthy. Smokes too much.” All of those outward things. I mean, he immediately comes through the door and goes straight to the sandwiches. “Oh, is this ham?” I love that. It’s quirky. Then come the moments where he can choreograph that intruder alarm. I think it’s so unusual. I love that we live in a “Slow Horses” world where John le Carré and James Bond [are mentioned]. David Cartwright [Jonathan Pryce] can reference John le Carré, and Lamb can say, “He’s got this poison thing like he’s [Bond arch villain] Rosa f— Klebb.” I love that about the show.

You’ve said you’d be happy to do “Slow Horses” for the rest of your career.

A disheveled-looking man stands in an office with his hands in his pockets.

I’m a fan of long-form TV. I love being in these different worlds, with these different characters every week. Sometimes I’d watch with envy and think, “Wouldn’t it be great to be a recurring character who intersects with the same people, rather like a theater company, where you keep coming back and developing these stories and characters?” Plus the writing, cinematography, acting, set design! I mean, it’s better than anything you’d see on the big screen.

After an excruciating amount of time spent in the “Darkest Hour” makeup chair to play Winston Churchill, did you set out to find a role like Jackson Lamb where you just put on dirty clothes, a stained overcoat and you’re camera-ready?

Here’s the story: I said to [my producing partner] Doug Urbanski, “Here’s my bucket list: I’d like to not use an accent or wear a wig. I don’t want prosthetic makeup. I don’t want a huge amount of costume changes. Preferably, it’d be well written and in the world of espionage.” Then I sort of said, “Now go find it.” A short time later, I’m sitting on a plane with Doug, and he’s reading. I leaned over, and said, “What are you looking at?” And he said, “A character who’s about to become your best friend.” When it was presented to me, I went, “I’ve got, like, one costume? It’s espionage and it’s in England? I don’t have to do an accent?” I couldn’t believe it. It ticked every single box. And on top of that, it was really good.

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Season 5 is already wrapped. Any evolving theories on Jackson and his windy digestive problems?

In Season 5, we’ve got an absolute zinger. [ L aughs ] The scene is about my flatulence. It’s a great one. We had such fun shooting it. He says, “It’s just gas, the most natural thing in the world. Don’t know what everybody’s so excited about.” But I actually think he uses it like, “Don’t get so close to me.” Literally. He’s delicious that way.

Jackson seems to always be eating. Do you think he’s a secret epicure?

He knows the places that you could hit quickly, because it’s that working lunch thing, isn’t it? He’s always on the run. I think he’s just shoveling it in. But given the food that he eats, I think it’s probably the best quality of that particular type of food. He would know where to get a really, really good sausage roll.

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Theater | Review: ‘Back to the Future’ at the Cadillac…

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Theater | review: ‘back to the future’ at the cadillac palace falls short as a time-traveling musical.

Zan Berube, Burke Swanson, Caden Brauch and company in the touring production of "Back to the Future: The Musical" at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago. (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

The justly beloved 1985 Robert Zemeckis movie, co-written with Bob Gale, is one of Hollywood’s greatest time-traveling stories — an accessible, emotionally resonant yarn with clear rules and a strong point of view. It’s both big fun to watch and an intellectually rigorous piece of storytelling that deftly explores the great paradox of this entire genre: how when someone goes back in time they inevitably impact what will follow. Instead of being tripped up by that, Zemeckis and Gale made it the heart of a story rooted not in spaceships and aliens but horny teenagers and high-school nerds. They dreamed up a mad scientist, an empowering message and an all-American narrative that aimed to rebuild a struggling middle-class household.

That story should have made a great musical: the rush of immortality and the saving of a broken family are the stock-in-trade of American musicals. But this show, which began in London and continues to play on Broadway, chose retro digital gimmickry over the heart and soul. Aside from the car, which does not impress in the touring production anywhere near as much as it does in the bigger Broadway show, the piece rushes through a lot of its plot, makes a bunch of weird detours and generally fails to build sufficient empathy for either Marty McFly (in this tour, Caden Brauch) or Doc Brown (Don Stephenson). Gale, who wrote the careening book of the musical, proved to be too attached to the source movie to embrace the potential theatrical opportunity presented by the chance to join with the composers Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard. And the show was not directed by John Rando in a way that allowed it to get beyond the gags and breathe and live truthfully in three dimensions.

Caden Brauch in the touring production of "Back to the Future: The Musical" at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago. (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

Don Stephenson, Caden Brauch and company in the touring production of "Back to the Future: The Musical" at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago. (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

Don Stephenson and Caden Brauch in the touring production of "Back to the Future: The Musical" at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago. (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

Caden Brauch and Burke Swanson in the touring production of "Back to the Future: The Musical" at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago. (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

That was my view when I saw “Back to the Future: The Musical” on Broadway and nothing in the tour changed my mind, although I’ll stipulate that plenty of people Wednesday night at the Cadillac Palace Theatre appeared to be greatly enjoying the spectacle designed by Tim Hatley, even though the show had to pause at one point for technical issues. “Back to the Future” is family entertainment and good for older kids who’ve perhaps seen the movie (from before they were born) and now want to see it writ large, replete with a racing DeLorean through a digital landscape. And while the tour leads are perfectly fine, if nothing special (the same could be said of the score), there’s one really innovative new performance on display in this relatively new Equity tour, from Burke Swanson as George McFly.

Swanson is funny and warm and he builds Marty’s dad with palpable depth and empathy, never lapsing into a stereotype. It’s splendid work and really improves some of the scenes in this show. And a few of the young dancers are excellent, too.

Otherwise, though, “Back to the Future” remains, for me, a missed opportunity to make something beautifully theatrical.

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

[email protected]

Review: “Back to the Future” (2.5 stars)

When: Through Sept. 1

Where: Cadillac Palace Theatre, W. Randolph St.

Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes

Tickets: $40-135 at www.broadwayinchicago.com

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Cast & crew

After graduating from high school without any plans for the future, Isaiah receives a push to start making better life decisions. After graduating from high school without any plans for the future, Isaiah receives a push to start making better life decisions. After graduating from high school without any plans for the future, Isaiah receives a push to start making better life decisions.

Alex Kendrick
Stephen Kendrick
Karen Abercrombie
Priscilla C. Shirer
Aspen Kennedy
1 Critic review

Top cast 26

Miss Clara Williams

Cynthia Wright

Isaiah Wright

Tony Jordan

Joshua Moore

Grace (receptionist)

Darren (Driver)

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Trivia This is the first Kendrick Brothers film where characters from an earlier film (War Room) appear.
August 23, 2024 (United States)
United States
Movie Website
Albany, Georgia, USA
Affirm Films
Juniper Post
Kendrick Brothers
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 3 minutes

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‘Jackpot!’ Review: Dystopia, Hollywood Style

Awkwafina and John Cena star in a fitfully funny near-future comedy with strangely mixed metaphors.

Share full article

A man in a three-piece suit and a woman wearing a gold top look in surprise at something happening offscreen.

By Alissa Wilkinson

In the near future, things are not very different. People wear the same clothes as we do, ride the bus to work, call each other on cellphones and stay in terrible Airbnbs run by hosts from hell. In the near future, everything is still expensive. And if you want to be an actor, you move to Los Angeles.

Yet a few things have changed. Following the Great Depression of 2026, the government of California — as desperate for money as its people are — instituted a Grand Lottery in which one citizen of Los Angeles wins some huge sum. Sounds great, but unfortunately whoever wrote the law seems to be a fan of “The Purge.” Until sundown on Lottery Day, anyone who successfully kills the lottery winner (all weapons allowed except guns) gets the winnings. After sundown, murder becomes illegal again, until next year.

Somehow the Michigander Katie (Awkwafina) missed this news, and thus had the bad fortune to arrive in Los Angeles to pursue her dream of acting the night before Lottery Day 2030. She, of course, accidentally wins the $3.6 billion jackpot while at an audition. Suddenly, everyone is after her, and the only person she can maybe trust is a “freelance protector” named Noel (John Cena, who may be Hollywood’s most dependably funny actor). He’ll get her safely to sundown. Probably.

This is quite the dystopian view of the future, though other movies have proposed that within a few decades, we’ll resort to state-sanctioned violence to secure our daily bread. In the world of Boots Riley’s comedy “ Sorry to Bother You ,” for instance, game show contestants beat themselves to a pulp to collect money and pay off their debts. Or, of course, there’s “ Squid Game .”

More dystopian, though, is the sense that in this version of the near future, nobody is capable of relating to anyone except through money. Only hours into her new L.A. life, Katie tells off a man (Adam Ray) who’s complaining loudly about his young daughter’s failure to get acting jobs that will line his pockets — as his daughter sits right next to him. Moments later, Katie meets a kind older woman (Becky Ann Baker) who wishes her luck, and then, quietly, swipes Katie’s watch.

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IMAGES

Film Review: Warriors of Future (2022) Ng Yuen Fai
Warriors of Future (2022) Movie Review
Warriors of Future (2022) Review
'Warriors of Future'
WARRIORS OF FUTURE Reviews of Louis Koo sci-fi action flick on Netflix
Warriors of Future (2022)

COMMENTS

Warriors of Future
Rated 2/5 Stars • Rated 2 out of 5 stars 05/24/23 Full Review Late R Incredibly stupid and badly written, not only does 'Warriors of Future' make no sense and doesn't bother explaining ...
'Warriors Of Future' Netflix Review: Stream It or Skip It?
And Warriors of Future shares cast members Louis Koo and Carina Lau with Dynasty Warriors, the big-budget fantasy epic from 2021 based on the Japanese video game franchise. Performance Worth ...
Warriors of Future (2022)
Warriors of Future: Directed by Yuen Fai Ng. With Louis Koo, Ching Wan Lau, Carina Lau, Philip Keung. A meteorite brings an extraterrestrial life to the earth. When powerful alien creatures threaten humanity, Commander Sing Lee's elite forces are almost wiped out, and the surviving soldier Tai Loi discovers an even bigger conspiracy.
Warriors of Future
Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jan 4, 2023. It's a pretty crazy movie, but at the same time, a lot of it doesn't seem that far removed from Michael Bay and James Cameron epics. Full Review ...
Warriors of Future (2022)
Descent1 5 December 2022. Warriors of Future is a Hong Kong sci-fi film, released on Netflix. The story is very simple (don't except any depth or Oscar acting) as it relies on the CGI. There are armour suits that look like Iron Man, various battle scenes with a giant plant, some zombie insects, and a few random robots.
Warriors of Future review
1.5. Summary. It is a by-the-numbers sci-fi film that doesn't add anything new to the genre. We review the Netflix film Warriors of Future, which does not contain spoilers. There are many sci-fi films that take audiences on a ride to the future, but some just feel repetitive. There are also sci-fi films that try to incorporate too many things ...
Warriors of Future Movie Review
Parents need to know that Warriors of Future is a 2022 Chinese sci-fi movie in which a group of ragtag soldiers must save the world from monstrous plants that landed from a meteor. Expect a fair amount of sci-fi action violence. There's fighting with robots, lasers, missile launchers, rifles, and guns; implied suicide; and monster imagery: The plants are somewhat reminiscent of the plant ...
'Warriors of Future' Review: Stunning CGI, Netflix's Wannabe 'Avatar'
Now on Netflix—following a summer theatrical premiere in Hong Kong, when it became the city's most successful Chinese-language movie ever—Warriors of Future is the feature directorial debut ...
Warriors of Future movie review: Louis Koo's sci-fi passion project
Louis Koo in a still from Warriors of Future (category IIB), directed by Ng Yuen-fai and co-starring Lau Ching-wan and Carina Lau. The ambitious, big-budget sci-fi adventure sets new standards for ...
‎Warriors of Future (2022) directed by Ng Yuen-fai • Reviews, film
The simple mission-focused plot is entirely comprised of cliches, exposition, and world-building, only taking a breath during the briefest of flashbacks while Ng Yuen-Fai packs the runtime with blockbuster set-pieces. Come for the rare HK sci-fi fare; stay for the impressively-rendered, ambitious, and nearly nonstop action. Austin Burke. ⚠️50%.
Review: Warriors of Future • Flixist
Warriors of Future Director: Ng Yuen Fai Release Date: August 5, 2022 (China), August 15, 2022 (HKIFF), December 2, 2022 (Worldwide Netflix) Rating: TV-14. In what is the biggest mistake the film makes, the entirety of the background for Warriors of Future is given in an exposition dump right at the beginning. In 2055, the overuse of military robots has destroyed most of Earth and hastened the ...
Warriors of Future (Hong Kong, 2022)
Warriors of Future - Review: Even though 'Warriors of Future' might have the title of a B-movie from mainland China, it's... surprisingly good for what it aims to be. This is partly due to the well-known actors, but above all due to the wonderfully captured action and the really impressive special effects.
Warriors of Future (2022)
Overview. When a meteor carrying a destructive plant strikes the world, a suicide squad is given hours to save their post-apocalyptic city from total collapse. Ng Yuen-fai. Director. Lau Ho-leung.
Warriors of Future
Warriors of Future (Chinese: 明日戰記; lit. 'Tomorrow's War'), previously known as Virtus (Chinese: 矛盾戰爭), is a 2022 Hong Kong military science fiction action film directed by visual effects artist Ng Yuen-fai in his directorial debut and starring Louis Koo, Sean Lau, and Carina Lau.Koo also serves as the film's executive producer, with the film being funded and distributed by his ...
Movie review: Warriors of Future
Warriors of Future has been pitched from the start as Hong Kong's answer to Hollywood blockbusters, and on that score it certainly delivers, with jaw-dropping visuals from the first frame. Ng Yuen-fai has worked on a number of big productions over the years, including the likes of Re-Cycle, The Warlords and Bodyguards and Assassins, and here ...
Warriors of Future (2022) Review
Warriors of Future (2022) Review. By Paul Bramhall. It may sound optimistic, but I'd like to think that years from now, fans of Hong Kong cinema will look back and say 2022 way the year the territory once more found its voice. The likes of Table for Six, Mama's Affair, and Chilli Laugh Story have all brought in healthy box office returns ...
Why Netflix's Warriors of Future Is a Win for Hong Kong's
Using the streaming platform Netflix as a vehicle for a worldwide release, Warriors of Future was originally released in Hong Kong on August 25th, 2022. Needing to hammer out post-production ...
Watch Warriors of Future
When a meteor carrying a destructive plant strikes the world, a suicide squad is given hours to save their post-apocalyptic city from total collapse. Watch trailers & learn more.
'Warriors of Future' Review: A Sci-Fi Action Film With a Lot of
Warriors of Future is an action film directed by Yuen Fai Ng, and stars Louis Koo, Ching Wan Lau, Carina Lau, Philip Keung, and Xiaoxia Cheng. The film is a post-apocalyptic science fiction story about a world that has been ravaged by natural disasters, viruses, and endless wars. It is in this world that a team of elite warriors is sent on a ...
Blockbuster 'Warriors of Future' Is Just the Start of HK star Louis Koo
With Warriors of Future slated for a global streaming release on Netflix on December 2, Koo shares more about why he was determined to create a sci-fi movie brought to life by a Hong Kong team, from concept to execution. Louis Koo stars as the leader of a combat team trying to save the world from a malevolent alien plant.
Warriors of Future Ending And End-Credits Scene, Explained
Warriors of Future Ending And Mid-Credits Scene, Explained. Rohan Jain. December 3, 2022. Directed by Yuen Fai Ng, Netflix's 'Warriors of Future' is a Hong Kong sci-fi action thriller film. Set in the year 2055, the story revolves around an alien plant called Pandora. When a meteorite strikes a region called B16, a giant plant starts ...
Warriors of Future (2022)
Violence & Gore. Moderate 3 of 6 found this moderate. There are multiple scenes of fighting through the main action scenes in the movie. Some blood and injury detail at various points during the movie, but neither particularly gory or excessive.
NBA Rumors: Warriors may have great news regarding Stephen Curry's future
The Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry and his future with the Bay Area franchise looks promising. One of the greatest players in NBA history and his future remain uncertain. Elite shooter ...
Consumed movie review & film summary (2024)
A sense of rhythm or frustrated chemistry might have made a difference in "Consumed," at least enough to stick to the movie's by-the-numbers conclusion. Unfortunately, clumsy and mostly inert dialogue often pre-emptively steps on Beth and Quinn's actions, making it even harder to anticipate whatever comes next.
'Alien: Romulus' review: Dwelling on the past doesn't guarantee a
The latest installment of the "Alien" series is an efficient and reasonably entertaining thriller. But dwelling too obsessively on the past won't guarantee a franchise's future.
Warriors of Future ending explained
One man is in charge of arming a bomb, and another two soldiers are trying to take down a robot that looks like a creature. They are navigating their way through a hospital corridor, and the flashbacks keep happening to when they first started their journey. The Pandora creature was releasing toxins into the air that would build the ecosystem ...
Why 'Slow Horses' is Gary Oldman's dream job
His character, a slovenly, flatulent insult hurler leading a team of failed operatives, is, of course, more complex than that. 'There's also a great moral compass' and loyalty, the actor says.
Review: "Back to the Future" falls short at the Cadillac Palace
The justly beloved 1985 Robert Zemeckis movie, co-written with Bob Gale, is one of Hollywood's greatest time-traveling stories — an accessible, emotionally resonant yarn with clear rules and a ...
The Forge (2024)
The Forge: Directed by Alex Kendrick. With Karen Abercrombie, Priscilla C. Shirer, Aspen Kennedy, T.C. Stallings. After graduating from high school without any plans for the future, Isaiah receives a push to start making better life decisions.
'Jackpot!' Review: Awkwafina and John Cena Star in Near-Future Comedy
Awkwafina and John Cena star in a fitfully funny near-future comedy with strangely mixed metaphors. By Alissa Wilkinson When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our ...

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