FIRESTORM starts with some outstanding visual poetry and ends with some clunkingly awful action scenes. The plot sees a rule-abiding cop who is tempted into breaking those rules in order to take down an ultra- violent gang of HK armed robbers wreaking havoc across the city. In truth Andy Lau is so upstanding as to be positively dull. A subplot featuring an ex-con trying and failing to go straight is far more compelling. There are the usual chases and fights but CGI has worked its malign influence, with the film's biggest stunt - involving the hero and a baddie tumbling off a roof - so CGI-addled as to remove any sense of wonder. The climactic gunfight also suffers as the heroes do so much damage that the very structure of the city ruptures (!) and new waves of SWAT turn up to replace the hundreds killed as if in some sort of video-game.
Review of Firestorm
