Warriors of Virtue: Return to Tao

Ok, what is wrong with filmmakers nowadays? If a film was not well-received, and no one liked it, then why make a sequel? "Warriors of Virtue" was one of the most boring movies I had ever seen, and five years later, they made a direct-to-video sequel. This god-awful sequel, "Warriors of Virtue: Return to Tao," was not given a North American release until almost a decade later and was made under a very weak financial backing than the first one. At least that one was a minor fantasy epic, which had a lot of puppetry and special effects, which unfortunately will not be done again in this one.

The story follows Ryan, now sixteen, played by Nathan Phillips, who is in China for a martial arts tournament. And, surprisingly enough, his leg has been healed. Wait a minute! At the end of the first movie, he came back to the real world and his leg was still disabled. How did his leg get miraculously better? Did he get surgery in between films or what? Like all bad movies, they leave us in the dust with no explanation. His friend, Chucky, played by Shedrack Anderson, is with him telling him that Tao does not exist. Oh, and they still pronounce Tao with a T sound.

When he gets transported to Tao, it looks half of what it was in the first film. Surprisingly darker and not a lot of people in the world. It's like how they did with "The Neverending Story" movies, where less and less people were seen in Fantasia in every sequel. Now there is a new evil the Warriors of Virtue could not defeat, played by the late Kevin Smith. You might remember Kevin Smith as the God of War, Ares, in "Hercules: The Legendary Journey's" and "Xena: Warrior Princess." Kevin Smith actually died when he was shooting this movie, which the movie was dedicated to his memory. Besides, how good of a job he did as Ares isn't anywhere close to how enjoyable or good of a performance he does in this film compared to Angus MacFayden as Komodo.

Here's another disappointment: the Warriors of Virtue are no longer Kangaroos. They're human now, because the movie explains that they "reached a higher level." That is an excuse for the filmmakers to let their viewers know that they shot this film on a lower budget to not afford the costumes and animatronics Ronny Yu had. Seriously, I think someone took their camcorder with them on their study abroad program or vacation to China and decided to shoot their trip. They probably were trying to do another "Blair Witch Project," which they should have known would have failed.

Michael Vickerman, who handled the screenplay of the first movie, is the director of this one, and he created Tao under-populated with few returning characters, and the forests and the Life Spring village look a lot like how they did years ago. There are familiar musical tracks and a lot of character references that really make you cringe. People should know that all direct-to-video sequels will just spell disaster all over it. So don't make them!

The biggest slap in the face is that the Warriors are never seen in the movie until the last action sequence, leaving you with the terrible performances seen by Nathan Phillips, Sedrack Anderson, and Nina Liu as the queen of Tao.

With the action in this movie, the martial arts are god-awful. Nathan and Nina look very choppy, or maybe it's their stunt-doubles that are doing a better job then they are, and they rip off the great action that you saw in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Also, like how in the first one the Kangaroos are rip-offs of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in this one they feel more like ripping-off The Power Rangers.

You want to know what I think? Avoid this movie as long as you live. It's a completely painful movie to sit through and you do not want to watch this "at all." Thank you God for helping me get through these two horrible movies.

Wait a minute...next month is October. You know what that means.....HALLOWEEN MONTH!!!! That's right folks, all of next month I will be reviewing a film that you should watch around Halloween. Stay tuned because it will be a fun month.