Yet another Hong Kong action movie. This time it's a film about competing triads and their typical turf battles and organized crime. Different gangs have shootouts and eventually they murder a crime boss, his grieving daughter takes control and puts together a team of female fighters who can help her get revenge. Sounds better than it actually is, in fact, there's nothing fun about this movie besides the scenes with the female martial artists.
Kind of an inspired shot.
The leader of the criminal organization.
The best moments in the picture are, predictably, the fight scenes with the girls of the deadly silver angels gang, the beach training sequence, the strip game and the brothel scene. The rest is very boring criminal talk with some tedious action thrown in. Most of the other subplots feel like they are from another movie.
The gals have their favorite birds tattooed
I like the scene when the girls introduce themselves and show their tattoos on their backs, each one of them represents a different bird. It's an interesting little moment.
The strip game actually has a funny payoff.
The few minutes the "Deadly Silver Angels" are present, the excitement level goes higher and we get some of the good stuff. As usual, the girls are rather undistinguishable and they blend in too much with each other, aside from the leading lady. They have no personality but they make up for it by performing the action choreography very well.
The final battle is brutal.
You are honestly better off just watching the compilation of scenes I put together if you wanna get the most out of it. It has its moments but it's not a good one.
Marian Delario, an original character created for the film.
The Double Dragon movie adaptation from 1994 wasn't very well liked but it's entertaining in a Power Rangers style of cheesy fun that could have only been done in the nineties. One of the few stand out characters was Marian Delario, the action chick of the movie, played by the talented Alyssa Milano.
Publicity photo of Alyssa Milano.
The movie is set in a dystopian part of California named New Angeles, after an earthquake destroys part of the state it becomes inhabited mostly by gangs and criminals who take advantage of the mess the natural disaster created. We follow two teen brothers that battle a megalomaniac millionaire who is after the titular double dragon medallion in order to gain power.
Two guys and a girl. A common trope in media from the nineties.
Marian is a supporting character, while she is the daughter of a police officer, she also sneaks up at night in order to lead the Power Corps, a sort of resistance group that fights against the thugs and thieves that rule the streets. She's very skilled as a martial artist and dresses in a very tomboyish and punk-like outfit.
Marian torturing Abobo.
She has a good introduction, the main trio of characters are cornered by Abobo and his lackeys but Marian comes out with her people and outnumbers them, giving us the information that we need to understand her status of leader and how much manpower she managed to recruit over the typical gang.
We also see her struggles at home as she worries about the crime rate being so rampant and the ineffectiveness of the police, praising the rebel groups, her father disapproves of the Power Corps, unaware that his daughter is leading them.
She keeps a lot of secrets from her father.
As a typical female secondary character from the time, she has a few sexualized moments, sure, they are mostly played for laughs but it is still very juvenile and rather uncomfortable because it comes out of nowhere and the payoff isn't very funny. Not to mention, it makes the male leads seem like perverts. They try pairing her with the blue brother, but they have no chemistry and it doesn't matter much to the film.
Really?
Other than that, she is featured in some fight scenes all throughout the movie, she even manages to defeat Linda Lash, the villain´s main henchwoman, in an awkwardly choreographed battle but still entertaining. Marian defeats Linda with the help of Billy and she ties her up with her own lash.
Marian tying Lash with her... lash.
The rebel girl also helps the boys in the final battle and goes along with them for the rest of the movie, maybe they were hoping for a sequel with the three of them but that never happened.
Overall, she's a fun character with a lot of potential. Her adventurous personality, the conflict with her dad's beliefs and her willingness to fight against what she considers to be unjust would have made for a great main character instead of the sometimes annoying male duo who lack the dramatic charge and freshness that Marian has, therefore, I think the film suffers in its storytelling for not choosing the main character correctly.
With this look, I am thinking she could have been a good Tank Girl.
I guess a female lead on a teen boy movie was too much to ask for back then. If you are gonna change that much from Double Dragon, then don't make a Double Dragon movie.
