A young boy is whisked away to the mythical land of Tao where he becomes the center of a conflict between an evil lord and a group of animal warriors.
Ben Dover’s Review: Warriors of Virtue: A Nauseatingly Misguided Attempt at Fantasy Grandeur
When a film’s most memorable legacy is being the subject of a blistering, nostalgia-fueled video essay titled “The Worst Movie I’ve Ever Seen,” you know you’re dealing with a special kind of cinematic atrocity. And Warriors of Virtue, the 1997 fantasy adventure that plays like an unholy union of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is about as special (read: abysmal) as they come.
From the opening moments, it’s painfully clear that the creative minds behind this debacle had delusions of grandeur, desperately striving for the epic scale and emotional heft of Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. Instead, what unfolds is a nauseatingly misguided exercise in bizarro world-building and astonishingly bad acting that makes the Star Wars Holiday Special look like a masterpiece.
The plot, if one can even call it that, follows a young boy named Ryan who is transported to the fantastical realm of Tao, where he must team up with a group of kangaroo-like warriors to defeat an evil warlord. Yes, you read that correctly – kangaroo warriors. It’s as if the screenwriters raided the discount bin at the costume shop and said, “You know what this needs? More explicit martial arts kangaroo costumes!”
And the visuals…oh lord, the visuals. Warriors of Virtue tries so desperately to dazzle the audience with its sprawling, colorful production design and meticulously choreographed fight sequences. But the end result is nothing short of a migraine-inducing eyesore, as the cheap special effects, garish color palette, and wooden performances collide in a dizzying assault on the senses.
Worst of all, the film squanders an impressive cast that includes the likes of Marlon Wayans, Angus Macfadyen, and Mario Yedidia, reducing them to mere caricatures spewing laughably overwrought dialogue. It’s as if the director instructed the actors to channel their inner Shatner at maximum volume at all times.
Warriors of Virtue is the epitome of a grand misfire – a film that aspires to epic fantasy greatness but lands firmly in the realm of unintentional comedy. It’s a neon-drenched, kangaroo-filled nightmare that makes one long for the comparatively nuanced storytelling of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. A true nadir of 90s family-friendly fantasy filmmaking.
Critics Consensus:
18% on Rotten Tomatoes… need we say more.
Trailer:
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