DemonWarriors

Demon Warriors (Opapatika) (2007)

This is an interesting and confusing movie from Thailand. Basically if you commit suicide then sometimes you will come back as an Opapatika, or a Demon Warrior. Each person that comes back has their own special power and each power comes with it’s own penalties. For example the “lead” character that becomes on Opapatika at the beginning of the movie has the ability to read minds, but using his power causes him to lose his other senses. So after a lot of confusing back-story that I really wasn’t getting into or understanding we eventually find out that there is a powerful Opapatika that is trying to capture and kill others to take their powers as his own. This sets up a big final battle between that man’s minions and the remaining Demon Warriors that are trying not to be eaten.

I really struggled when trying to come up with a plot synopsis for this movie. Most of the movie plays like random snippets of plot and dialogue that is sandwiched between some killer action sequences. It isn’t until the end of the movie that anything close to a cohesive plot even begins to take shape. Though I will give the movie credit if you sit thru it until the end everything that happened in the first 100 or so minutes does make sense. I just wish that the filmmakers had given us a bit more information earlier on so that I didn’t spend most of the movie’s runtime scratching my head wondering what the hell was going on.

Now the best part of Demon Warriors are the action sequences. They are plentiful and inventive. Each of the Opapatika have their own powers, which means they all have different ways of fighting. There is a man who can separate an animalistic specter of him self that rips thru things. There is another that is immortal and fights with swords sticking out of him in all directions. But my favorite is the hit man that if he shoots at you then you are dead. Each of these characters and others get extended fight sequences where they tear thru the men sent after them. The fights are well choreographed, bloody, and exciting. Now of course everyone should be warned that there is quite a bit of CGI used in the movie. Some of it is pretty bad actually. But for a lower budget flick from Thailand I was still pretty impressed with what I was watching.

In the end Demon Warriors has it’s flaws and is frustrating at times to watch. But there is plenty of action and the story does make sense in the end. So with that in mind I would say rent this one and give it a chance. For more information on where you can pick this title up, as well as some other killer movies head on over to the Magnet releasing website at http://www.magnetreleasing.com/index.html

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer