Back in the noughties, Jingle Man delivered the Tony Leung Chu-wai starring “Tokyo Raiders” (2000) which combined a then fashionable Latino enthused soundtrack with a genuine sense of fun. It was then followed up in 2006 with “Seoul Raiders” that added Shu Qi to the mix. Whilst entertaining, the law of diminishing returns was setting in swiftly. So fast forward to 2018 and the belated third in the series came out in “Europe Raiders”. It kind of passed me by back then but ever the optimist thought I'd give it the once over.
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One Christmas Lam (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and the rest of the “Four Bounty Hunters” rescue the children of a kidnapped IT programmer (George Lam) whist simultaneously freeing him. After celebrating together, Lam takes him voluntarily to the CIA where he has already designed a cell for himself. He creates the programme “The Hand of God” which was to be used to maintain peace across the world. Flash forward several years later to Italy and Lam along with his ex-lover Wang (Tiffany Tang) are brought together as the CIA reveals that this peace is being threatened by an unknown individual that turns out to be one of the children rescued by Lam. Sophie (Du Juan) wants to take revenge on those she blames for her father's incarceration and subsequent death. She only possesses half of “The hand of god” and needs her estranged brother Rocky (Kris Wu) to give her his half. Blackmailing a mafia boss into helping, they aim to free Rocky who is in the same prison his late father was. Lam and Wang intervene but not everything and indeed everyone is what they appear to be.
Did I mention the law of diminishing returns? Well it saddens me to say that this is indeed the case. Jingle Ma tries to cover for the thinness of the plot by throwing all his trickery at the screen and as befits a former cinematographer, knows how to make a film look good. But no amount of surface gloss can make up for the fact that the narrative is threadbare and fails to sustain any interest. It resembles the worst of those globe-trotting Jackie Chan features of recent years that replaced actual content with a “hey look we're in (insert country) aren't we cool” travelogue and cultural stereotyping. The title is also a bit misleading as they never leave Italy. Yes, Italy is in Europe but surely with a title like that, you'd expect a bit more movement within the EU borders.
The narrative offers nothing new and lacks inspiration. The twists, when they come, are perplexing and there are plot holes the size of planets. For example, at one point they go back to the safe house as it's apparently the last place anyone would expect. They are up against CIA with all their tracking devices, it would be the first place they checked! It's one of those dumb situations that require people to do silly things because the script requires them to get to a particular plot point. The final reveal actually made me break into laughter, such is the absurdity when you consider it for more than three seconds. Yes, this is a film that is not supposed to be taken seriously but you can only suspend disbelief for so long before it becomes absurd and you start asking questions of it. Such as how does Lam get the budget to put on all these elaborate situations? Why are CIA safe houses so easy to infiltrate? Just how quickly can you learn Klingon? And did anyone actually read the script before accepting the part or was it hidden in a big pile of cash?
Tony Leung Chiu-wai will be remembered as one of the best of his generation but has a paper thin role here, with others filling in his character beats as best as possible, while he's coasting through this. Now in the era of Liam Neeson, age is but a number when it comes to action stars. Whilst Tony Leung was only around 55 at the time of release, he does appear too old for this particular part. In the previous two, he was surrounded by a bevy of beauties but in this more “enlightened” era that is probably not the best route to go down. Remember there is a gap of 12 years between the second and third parts of the franchise and it shows. He's probably not helped by the other three “bounty hunters” being played by veteran performers that only serve to emphasise the age discrepancy.
Tiffany Tang is more animated as the sometime love interest\sometime adversary Wang. The fact she looks considerably younger than her years doesn't help with the age gap, but the lack of chemistry between the two leads is probably more damaging. You don't buy into the attraction and feels just like another game for Lam. She throws herself into the action but like the rest she can't do much such limited material.
Du Juan and Kris Wu round up the main participants. Again like the rest, they have essentially one note roles with a single characteristic to define them. Which given the narrative does actually make sense; not that I'm certain that was intentional. Lau Kar Wing, Lo Mang and Yuen Qiu have fun as the fellow bounty hunters and George Lam appears briefly and is his usual graceful self.
There is nothing wrong per se with the actions scenes. There are sufficient explosions and gun fire to keep those easily pleased with some noisy distraction. Yet, like everything, it feels soulless. Like a lot of the big action blockbusters, it's all noise and excess. Why blow up one car when you can blow up a highway. The techniques used previously in the series to mask the limitations of the actors in the fight sequences are played out again here, with plentiful slow motion and quick editing. We've seen this before though, and it's simply nothing new, just a reply of something done better previously.
“Europe Raiders” is a reflection of its central characters, everything is on the surface but nothing behind the image. Jingle Ma creates a flash piece of commercial cinema, but it's bereft of its own identity and once finished will disappear from the memory like a faded dream. A real disappointment as the first two in the series were at least fun, this is a sequel that never needed making. Like Lam, this series needs to now go into retirement.
