Movie review: Divergence

Managed to catch this show yesterday after attending the meet-and-greet session with the cast the day before. So, here we go.

In the past few years, director Benny Chan has made a name for himself for directing excellent HK movies such as Gen-X Cop, Who Am I? Heroic Duo and recently, The New Police Story. The latest trend for this particular director is that he is incline more towards the human intensity drama and not just pure shoot-outs ala John Woo with guns blazing and big unreal explosions. Hence, this intense human drama continues in this action-movie as well.

The practically kicks of with CID Shing (played by Aaron Kwok) escorting the accountant of a money launderer (played by resident TVB serial actor Galen Lo) back to Hong Kong from Canada. However en route to the safe house, the accountant is assassinated and the killer (Daniel Wu again!) escapes without leaving any clues. This leads Shing to investigate the assasination and thus, bringing back the past that still haunts him after 10 years. Meanwhile the money launderer is happy that his case will be thrown out due to lack of witnesses and thus bring about the resumption of his frozen assets. The plot takes a turn when the head's son suddenly disappeared.

The plot itself is relatively simple and I must admit it's quite engaging to watch how the story unfolds. Unfortunately, the writers outdo themselves this time by introducing too many sub-plots that somehow entangled itself into a big mess. Not too worry tough, the main plot gets a nice wrap-up at the end, but many holes are left uncovered. Nevertheless, this movie has a fair share of romance, action and suspense.

What's attractive about this movie are the cast, Angelica Lee, Daniel Wu, Aaron Kwok, Ekin Cheng, and cameo by Eric Tsang. Not bad. I reckon, the one who stole the limelight in this movie is surprisingly, Aaron Kwok. He brilliantly portrays a love-torn cop whose girlfriend has mysteriously disappeared ten years back. His inner struggle and despondency is greatly portrayed on-screen. Besides that, nothing really outstanding from the other actors. IMHO, it's funny watching Galen Lo on the big screen than on the TV... kinda make you feel like you're watching a HK serial on the big screen.

In this movie, you do get the sight-and-sound experience of Hong Kong. Shot in various locations, from the IFC to the Kowloon area and even to a certain night market in HK. Nice... since I've been there once, I recognized a few places and really, it's like what you see on screen.

Overall, an average action-thriller with big casts. I reckon the only thing pulling the movie from floating is the story. There is just too many elements introduced and at the end, it is clumsily assembled. What a waste really! Guess the writers were too ambitious. Thus, if you don't mind the messy story or if you're a big fan of Aaron Kwok, Daniel Wu, or Ekin, then go for it. Else, just go for another movie. Come to think of it... now I know why the movie is called Divergence. haha...

Ratings (Scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the highest)

Cast : 4
Sound : 3
Picture : 3.5
Storyline: 2.5 [Messy storyline]

OVERALL : 3