Should have been MUCH better!

Rating: 5/10 (12 September 2014)

Jason Statham is perfectly fine, and there is good stunt choreography by also-director Corey Yuen. But, Yuen, in the director's chair, doesn't know how to shoot those fight scenes, or the car chase scenes.
The cinematography, such as it is, is shaky-cam. And, it is too close up. We know that Statham can fight, so by doing the close-up stuff, and doing too much cutting, it undercuts the stuntwork, and it makes you think that they had to cut because the actor couldn't do full, uncut fight scenes.
The story has okay ideas, but even in 92 minutes, the movie is narratively uneven, so it basically starts and stops at irregular intervals.
The Stanley Clarke film score seems divorced from the film, like it was something he wrote separately, and the editors just kind of cut and pasted it into the movie. A disappointing effort. The franchise is being restarted in 2015, so I am hoping for better then.
***** (5 Out of 10 Stars)