A young teen learns who he really is in this Canadian sci-fi martial arts action film.
David is a high school student plagued by constant nightmares. His uncle attempts to help him calm his nerves. However, on one fateful day, David’s life changes forever. During class, a SWAT team swarms in demanding to look for David. David soon finds himself transforming as his eyes turn bright blue and singlehandedly destroys all members of the team. David begins to learn that he is not who he thinks he is.
David learns that his uncle is not his uncle but rather Dr. Andre Cheng, who was involved in an experiment that took young orphans and turned them into fighting machines. The quest slowly leads David to the corporation where he was located before he learned that Andre has protected him from the corporate heads, who want to use the fighters for their own evil intentions. When those close to David begin to become victims of the corporation, David uses his fighting skills to fend himself while there is possible dissention within the company when one of their own has created the perfect killing machine without authorization.
A well-blended of science fiction and martial arts action, director James Mark makes his (no pun intended) mark on the action genre with this nicely shot meshing of experimentation and sci-fi action. While the plot is something done quite a bit in the genre, the film’s highlight is truly the action, which features some awesome martial arts action performed by the director’s brother, lead actor Chris Mark.
Chris Mark truly makes the most of his role as David, the high school student who has a target on his back because of the reality involving his nightmarish visions. With his performance, Chris Mark is truly an action star on the rise. He’s got the skills and from his performance as this troubled youngster, he’s got the chops. David is the definition of a literal tortured soul whose visions of a burning body triggers his transformation into a martial arts fighting machine, signified by the bright blue in his eyes.
Daniel Park makes the most of his role as Andre, David’s “uncle”, as he does all he can to protect him while Denis Akiyama’s Fujitaka, the head of the Saisei Corporation, perfects the mastermind role of the character who orders nearly everyone with the exception of the mysterious Yin, who has gone against protocol and sends his own team to follow David while he has created a perfect killing machine without authorization from Fujitaka. Reuben Langdon, a staple of action films as a stuntman and video game performer, spends nearly all of the film speaking in Japanese for his role of Fujitaka’s assistant but sadly, no action for this renowned stunt performer. In his case, his acting chops make up for it.
The action is truly a highlight of the film. A well-made combination of wirework and exciting martial arts action is sure to help solidify this film as one of the top action films of the year. For his first action sequence, Chris gets to take on a SWAT-like team led by a cameo appearing Alain Moussi, the star of Kickboxer: Vengeance and the recently released Kickboxer: Retaliation. The rest of the action shows Chris’ agility in performing both the hard stunt work in terms of falls and his frenetic martial arts skills, which seem to derive from taekwondo, tricking, and some nice swordwork and staff work in some cases.
Kill Order is a solid sci-fi martial arts film that should bring up Chris Mark’s name as one of the top new names in action cinema. The finale does leave room for a sequel and for this reviewer, one can hope that it does happen and we get to see Chris Mark in action again very soon.
WFG RATING: B+
RJLE Films and Raven Banner Entertainment present an Iron Bay Film and Media and 2X Entertainment Inc. production. Director: James Mark. Producer: Byron Kent Wong. Writer: James Mark. Cinematography: Justin Lovell. Editing: James Mark.
Cast: Chris Mark, Daniel Park, Denis Akiyama, Melee Hutton, Jessica Clement, Jason Gosbee, Reuben Langdon, Alain Moussi.
RLJE Films will release the film on DVD, VOD, and Digital HD on February 6, 2018.
WorldFilmGeek 