Story: Nova was just another kid with extremely spiky hair with super human powers and awesome martial arts ability. His sister, Belle, and cousin, Jazz, were also insanely strong and had ninja skills to boot. Together, all three were a force to be reckon with, especially Nova since he inherited the Avenging Fist fighting techniques from his now defunct father. But there are some secrets and mysteries surrounding his father's murder and the man who killed him which will always leave Nova ignorant to the truths about his origins.

On another day of cyber bike racing with Jazz, Nova fights and befriends Iron Surfer, a rock and jock, goggle wearing, red haired punk kid who ends up being a key figure in finding the man who killed Nova's father and becomes the love interest to Belle. Dark, an enigmatic figure and detective emerges and all it set loose on the table as an explosive special effects extravaganza hits the screen and becomes an all out martial arts fest driven by Corey Yuen's fight choreography and Andrew Lau's direction.

Review: Sigh... In many ways, I've avoided writing this review, avoided putting on the hate I have for this film. But at the same time, I wanted to avoid the praise I wanted to give to a film that sucks so bad and hurts so much that it's almost inexplicably cool. Do you see my dilemma?

Could there be a movie that can be considered the worst film of all time, but also one of the most groundbreaking and interesting films to come out in a long while? I don't know. Maybe I'll be flamed for this, maybe not. Usually, I hate hating on a film as much as most people do. My general philosophy is that every film deserves to be seen, but as a critic, I have an obligation and job to save people's money, to save their hard earned cash and to preserve their waking hours from being wasted on films that could be considered a mockery to filmmaking. Not that "The Avenging Fist" is a mockery, but it's definitely a film that crashed and burned on hype, leaving an after rot of wreckage and despair. Though, much like Pandora's Box, there is a glimmer of hope, because of the high amount of invention and creativity that flows throughout this film.

I've always considered Andrew Lau as being the Jerry Bruckheimer of Hong Kong. He created the first event film with his smash hit "The Stormriders" and introduced Centro Digital and CGI to the world of Hong Kong Cinema. Since then, there have been a slew of films utilizing the new CGI craze, even Andrew Lau himself in his last few endeavors with "A Man Called Hero" and "The Duel." Even though his films have created a definite amount of income for one of Asia's most ambitious director, it seems that Lau continues to overflow his films with more of the same old thing. Though reinvention and ingenuity is a habitual fare for his films, he never learns nor attempts to fix the mistakes that flood his past films.

What ultimately fails "The Avenging Fist" as a film is that it lacks the humanity in its story, damaging the bind the audience may have on the main characters. The sense of tragedy is there by focusing on the development of Nova and his father, Thunder, but the other supporting characters lack any depth to truly be "supporting." The main evil force behind everything, Combat 21, is so excessive as a character, that it destroys every moment of coolness for its actor, Roy Cheung. Who, arguably, played the best villain in the "Young and Dangerous" series.

Lee-Hom Wang departs from being Aaron Kwok's sidekick from "China Strike Force" and jumps into the main lead of Nova. Being somewhat young and almost infantile for the counterpart role of Jin from "Tekken," he lacks the tragic aggression and fury that keeps him from being a true force on the screen. Wang doesn't do too terrible in the later parts of the film when he realizes the truth about his father, but it never surpasses the plateau of melodrama to be of any emotional worth. It's interesting to see though, that somewhere in the midst of all that hair and made up testosterone, lays an actor waiting to come out. For being a famous pop singer, the charisma and magnetism is there, but Wang is going to have to go through some bad roles before he can fully make the most of his favoring characteristics and attributes.

I may be bias with the inclusion of Kristy Yang (Belle) and Gigi Leung (Erika), since I'm in love with them and swear on my life that I will somehow be in bed with the both of them in the near, near, near future, but they played their roles remarkably. As in, being pretty and standing there smiling and looking ferociously hot. I hate to say it, but they were Lau's Barbie Dolls in the film. By dressing them up, and putting them in pretty poses, both Yang and Leung were just one dimensional love interests for both Stephen Fung's Iron Surfer and Wang's Nova respectively. I would have loved it to have Gigi Leung's character to have more insight and back story, since she didn't have any other connections to the storyline other than looking beautiful for Nova, but it's too bad she was wasted in this manner. Even Yang, who played the sister to Nova had some small moments of importance in the film, but ultimately was used as an instrument for unnecessary tragedy.

The main reason most people will want to watch this film will be the re-teaming of the dynamic duo, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. Sadly enough, both are used sparingly and almost ridiculously to satisfy the appetites of old school fans. In retrospect, Biao does some pretty impressive CGI fighting, but the silver mask on his face totally kills all expectations for his character. Why put a famous and very likeable star such as Biao in a pathetic role as Thunder when all you're going to do is cover up his face? Even Hung suffered from a terrible character design with the worst use of a trenchcoat matched with a silver, metal hat. The funniest part though, is the cameo role of Ekin Cheng who played Hung's slimmer self during the flashback scenes. It's almost too surreal.

The one saving grace for "The Avenging Fist," though, was the fact that it had Andrew Lau's signature direction all over it. With the sweeping camera movements and the stylish editing of the action and overall scope of the picture, Lau definitely does an amazing job at painting a portrait and creating new worlds of imagination and intensity. From the first shots of the film, you have a technopolis never before seen in any Asian film, filled with flying cars and skyscrapers that never seem to end, obviously paying homage's to Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element" and George Lucas's "The Phantom Menace." But what is most satisfying is the inventiveness and utilization of CGI special effects. For some, it may seem too much and in many ways, an overabundance of CGI can kill any form of real acting and drama from the picture, but can also become eye candy, filled with as much sugar to give cavities to your eyes for a long while.

For fans of "Tekken" out there, this is not a "Tekken" film. Due to the court battles, Lau and company had to remove all the references to the video game. Though some character designs may reflect players such as Jin and Hwoarrang, "The Avenging Fist" does not follow the storyline whatsoever. The film may seem more along the lines of "Star Wars" if anything from the obvious allusions that the film makes to the trilogy, but it ends up being a mess of everything that it never really contains an ounce of originality in its plot when it's attempting to separate itself from "Tekken."

In the end, the extremes of "The Avenging Fist" hurt it the most. The excess and surplus of special effects and CGI titivates the picture, but destroys almost all substance the film carries on its shoulders. It's almost as if the film was attempting to break through the flashy effects and gratuitous action and struggle as much as it can to show the world, that underneath the entire make up and gloss, lays some heart and emotion.