Imagine THE MATRIX set in a high school and you'll have the jist of VOLCANO HIGH, a ridiculous slice of high-octane action that exhibits all of the tendencies I hate in action cinema. In order: flashy direction, overblown cinematography, dated CGI enhanced fight scenes and frenzied editing. If watching guys flying through the air or performing stunts all with the aid of lots and lots of wires is your sort of thing, then good for you; me, I prefer my action gritty and realistic, not fantastic like we get here.
The virtually non-existent storyline involves a rebellious high school student struggling to fit in with the various gangs and factions in his new school. However, the students soon find themselves having to team up to tackle a bigger menace in the form of the crafty principal (played by the delightfully twitchy and bug-eyed Hie-bong Byeon, the best thing in the movie by far) and his new, thuggish teacher recruits.
VOLCANO HIGH is a truly soulless affair that seeks to emulate popular Hollywood hits instead of finding its own niche. It's also intensely boring, with lots of repetitive, CGI and wire-enhanced fights that go nowhere, characters so paper-thin that you can almost see through them, and a resolute lack of likable people. Okay, so the inevitable all-action climax is mildly entertaining, filled with wave upon wave of CGI-fuelled mayhem, but like the rest of the movie it feels very pointless and so last century.
The virtually non-existent storyline involves a rebellious high school student struggling to fit in with the various gangs and factions in his new school. However, the students soon find themselves having to team up to tackle a bigger menace in the form of the crafty principal (played by the delightfully twitchy and bug-eyed Hie-bong Byeon, the best thing in the movie by far) and his new, thuggish teacher recruits.
VOLCANO HIGH is a truly soulless affair that seeks to emulate popular Hollywood hits instead of finding its own niche. It's also intensely boring, with lots of repetitive, CGI and wire-enhanced fights that go nowhere, characters so paper-thin that you can almost see through them, and a resolute lack of likable people. Okay, so the inevitable all-action climax is mildly entertaining, filled with wave upon wave of CGI-fuelled mayhem, but like the rest of the movie it feels very pointless and so last century.