The Viral Factor (Dante Lam) [Archive]

Stay Puft

02-03-2012, 10:36 PM

Well, this was disappointing.

I haven't seen any of Lam's earlier films yet, the stuff that put him on the map (e.g. Beast Cops), or his other genre efforts (I see he has done comedy as well as fantasy and romance), but he has garnered a reputation for and has enjoyed commercial success (home and abroad) with action films. And after The Viral Factor, I think I can say he's a pretty terrible filmmaker when it comes to this genre.

The poster I saw in the lobby proclaimed this to be the first blockbuster of 2012, and that's a pretty good way to characterize the film and its intentions. Dante Lam, based on the last couple films I've seen, apparently wishes he was in Hollywood, and is picking up a lot of bad stylistic habits along the way. The military convoy shootout that opens the film is indistinguishable in its staging, editing, framing, from anything I can think of off the top of my head (say, Peter Berg's The Kingdom, or Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, as two films that feature similar shootouts, and are, as I said, the first that came to mind, but take your pick). And this highly efficient, pseudo-chaotic "commercial realism" extends to fight sequences and other stunts. This aesthetic was already evident in Fire of Conscience, although I found that film slightly more enjoyable; it's much worse, or much more efficiently developed, in The Viral Factor, which has all the incoherent whizbang of contemporary studio output. This is Dante Lam's most expensive film to date, and the guy just throws money around; particularly amusing is a helicopter chase sequence in a downtown metro area, which serves no narrative purpose whatsoever (the plot is dictated by setpieces, and so on).

But, it's obviously not Hollywood expensive (I read $14 million or $17 million?). Expensive by HK industry standards, of course, but then that gets to the real heart of the problem, which is Dante Lam's crass artistic sensibilities given relative budget. Bai's character is killed in the aforementioned opening shootout, and Lam depicts the moment with a gratuitous, slow motion special effects shot of the bullet penetrating her forehead. This is some awfully crass garbage, even ignoring the awful special effects. But of course the cheapness of the effects just adds an entire wtf-layer to the proceedings, like even if the filmmakers wanted this particular visual effect, at what point could they not figure out that maybe it looks really bad and they should find another way to depict that scene? It's an utterly bizarre artistic decision, and this kind of misguided visual showmanship is at odds with the film's attempts at emotional drama. Lam's penchant for such gratuitous effects undercuts said drama and reveals the film for what it really is (crass spectacle), meaning the end narrative product and emotional catharsis is just gag-inducing in its insincerity. And as you might also guess from this paragraph, the film does not treat its female characters with much respect; the principle female character is left bleeding at the bottom of a boat, presumably alive, but given no resolution. I think that says all it needs to about what the film really cares about, and it's not the "character drama" it's peddling.

So, yeah, it's a bad film.