The Dead Lands

Finally we have the Maori action movie we have all been begging for! If you have ever seen the Haka performed by the All Blacks, and wondered what these guys would do to their enemies without the limitations of Rugby rules, then all your questions will be answered. The plot is a Kung Fu style revenge tale. A young chief's son vows revenge for some tribal treachery, and hooks up with a mystical, wiser warrior, to take out a small army of baddies. Action movie aficionados will be pleased to see some authentic Maori weapons and fighting choreography, instead of the typical blade weapons and the Asian martial arts we see in countless movies these days. The acting is fascinating because you are basically watching actors represent their own culture from an earlier era, unlike let's say, having a Scottish man portray an ancient Greek warrior in a film. The authentic locations add to the overall realistic effect as well. I'm sure there are artistic liberties taken with the historical accuracy, but nothing as crazy as the 300 franchise. The directing is a bit frantic, with quick cuts and lots of camera movements during fight scenes, but that seems to be the visual style for action movies these days. Overall, this film is a fascinating look at a culture that is completely exotic to the rest of the world because of vast geographical distance and centuries of colonial influence.

The movie's plot moves along predictable lines i.e a tribe is wiped out by a ruthless clan of another tribe with only the chief's young son who is able to escape. How he takes revenge with the help of a flesh eating giant tribal man living in the Deadlands, forms the story.

What slightly separates the movie from other movies is - it is completely set in the jungles, shows how the tribals fight and and some of the fight sequences are staged well.

What was required was a tight script, bit of mystery and fear and more depth in the characters to make it interesting. In the absence of this, the film becomes sluggish to watch.

Give it a miss.

Hongi is the young smallish son of Maori chief Tane. They receive a party led by Wirepa, son of the chief of the neighboring tribe. Tane hopes to make peace but Wirepa desecrates the dead and blames it on Hongi. Wirepa uses it as an excuse to attack during the night and massacre the tribe. Tane curses Wirepa as Hongi survives after getting thrown down a hill. Wirepa decides to lead his men through the Dead Lands where a spirit supposedly eats trespassers. Hongi follows them looking to kill Wirepa for revenge. He recruits the spirit to hunt down Wirepa and his men.

There isn't much to the story other than a simple revenge. There isn't anything new other than some good Maori fight action. The acting is perfectly natural. The characters are simple. There is a supernatural side to the story but it's not really elevated. It may be more compelling to make this more of a fable and increase the sense of the supernatural spirits. This is a little too basic.

Fine little action movie settled in pre-colonial New Zealand (Maori tribes) - reminds me a little of Mel Gibson's Apocalyptico (with a far smaller production of course - but not a cheap looking one) or Rapa Nui (1994).

A fine revenge trip into long gone times - the actors are also very good, very believable in their roles. Just good.

Sometimes "last of ..." is not that accurate, especially if you have two who can be called that. For different reasons of course. And while the main story is pretty straight forward (and you can see where it's going) there are some gems here and there. The action scenes are pretty well executed. My Maori is not up to the task, but the acting seems more than decent too.

Talking about tasks, the question is is our main hero up to it? Being put in a situation, no one wants to be in, but sometimes you are forced to be in, is more than difficult. On the other hand, you have his mentor, who has some issues of his own. The dynamic works well, though you have to be open minded with what it means to be them or live in that sort of environment - if you can't get down with that, it can be dreadful to watch