The Art of War 2: Betrayal

Rating R Formats DVD Genre action Starring Wesley Snipes, Athena Karkanis, Winston Rekert, Ryan McDonald Directed by Josef Rusnak Publisher Sony Pictures

The Art of War 2: Betrayal isn’t just a bad movie. It’s a sewer-slinging, disease ridden spawn of Satan, crafted in the depths of cinema Hell. As soon as the DVD was finished, I stomped on it and threw it in the garbage. Nobody in their right mind should go near it. If you see it for sale for a penny, do yourself a favor and smash it before some other sucker buys it and has to suffer the same fate as I did.

So by now, you’re probably asking why I’m acting like I need time in a looney bin. For starters, the back of the DVD box clearly advertises the film as being “an adrenaline-injected thrill ride.” Well, I needed a shot of adrenaline just to stay awake. No action film in the history of action films has ever been as boring as The Art of War 2. Every single character was identical, blandly muttering cookie-cutter dialogue that could’ve been written by a ten-year-old. There is not a single moment of humor, humanity, or even shameless attempt at making any of the characters interesting. There is absolutely no reason to care what happens to anyone.

Now comes the part where I like to discuss the plot. But since I couldn’t even figure out what the plot was, I don’t know how to describe it. There are no clues or hints as to what the main character Neil Shaw (Wesley Snipes) is trying to accomplish. It’s impossible to tell who is on who’s side, and what they are fighting for. I could only catch vague pieces on political corruption and people trying to assassinate them, along with Shaw’s former transvestite trainer being a casualty in the mess. It’s too confusing and not even interesting enough to even try and piece together.

Take a look at the DVD cover. Wesley Snipes, wearing sunglasses, being super cool in front of a big explosion. Sure, this film has no depth to it, but I at least expected some entertaining pointless action. Amazingly, the action was a snore. Not in the sense of being cheesy or laughable, but actually boring. A filmmaker has to really try hard to make action scenes dull, as they’re usually fun to watch like in Die Hard, or bad but comedically entertaining as in Walker, Texas Ranger. In Art of War 2, most combat scenes were filmed in extremely dim lighting so the viewer could barely see what was going on. There was no style to the lighting, it just simply looked like somebody turned the brightness meter on my television all the way down. Because of this atrocious aesthetic choice which defined most of the action scenes. Once the viewer gets a chance to see about three minutes of action that isn’t in darkness, suddenly a revelation opens up. The dim lighting intentionally hides how terrible the fight choreography is. The gunplay is pathetic, as everybody fires their weapon without any tactical executions. The hand-to-hand combat is even worse, resembling adults acting like kids in a schoolyard fight.

The production value is jokingly terrible. Instead of putting the budget into time to deliver good characters, most of it is spent on gimmicks in an attempt to distract the viewer from boredom. Flashy jump-cuts and stylized flashbacks in the style of "CSI" pop up about every minute. They all run together and only create more confusion.

It takes a lot for me to give anything zero stars. If there’s a single moment in any film that even gives me a single moment of entertainment, humor, or impact, that deserves to be recognized. The Art of War 2 has nothing. There isn’t a single moment of even passable acting, story, humor, action, or reason to care. I’d rather wake up on Christmas morning to find coal in my stocking than this DVD. If everyone in the world avoids this movie like the plague, then the world will be a better place.