Hong Kong has just theatrically released this VOD film this week (June 28) even though Blu-ray discs are already available from Mainland China before its theatrical release. What the audience expected for this film was the action star Sylvester Stallone (1946-) who played the protagonist Ray Breslin in The Escape Plan (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, 2013).
The story of this China-US co-production VOD film is about Ray Breslin's team trying to break politically important personnel out of the world's notorious prisons. After Ray's trusted employee Shu Ren (Mainland Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming) is kidnapped and prisoned in the most elaborate prison on earth, 'The Hades', Ray Breslin and his team assist Shu Ren's escape.
Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018), this is actually a boring and money-wasted movie sequel. There are several reasons for this.
1. Prison should not be a 'Colosseum'. This VOD film is full of Colosseum scenes. However, audiences cannot understand why there is a prison like that. This lack of reality and context is something that causes audiences to escape from the theater.
2. Antagonist Jaspar Cimbaal's motivation is confusing. The antagonist, Jasper (played by Wes Chatham), just wants to manage the cutting edge prison on the earth? Or just revenge on Ray Breslin for firing him? The antagonist does not show the strongest and clearest desire to achieve anything.
3. Who is the main protagonist? Shu Ren or Ray Breslin? Audiences just want to see Sylvester Stallone's action film, but Shu Ren's acting is just mechanically doing Kung Fu actions only. He is not able to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger for this film franchise.
The most successful China-US coproduction in recent years is Geo Storm (2017). Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) and The Escape Plan 2 : Hades (2018) have been proved to be major failures. At the end of this film, audiences are not able to understand what the film is about. It is not a story-telling film, but it is a martial arts game. We just only saw endlessly Colosseum-like prison, confusion and vagueness of character motivations and unbalance between Stallone and Huang Xiaoming's appearances. This VOD film is not only a waste of money, but it is also a waste of filmmaking resources. Audiences need an escape plan from this franchise.
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