Based on a wildly popular Japanese comic book, this neo-Fascist meditation on the divine right of martial artists is unyieldingly boring.
Wandering warrior Kenshiro "Ken" (Gary Daniels), coached by his dead but still-psychic father Ryuken (Malcolm McDowell), eschews mere vengeance. He would much rather eradicate post-apocalyptic dissension between the Northern Star and Southern Star factions of the kingdom.
Flashbacks reveal that Ken was literally ripped apart by ruthless Southern Star warlord Shin (Costas Mandylor), who has unbalanced the cosmic order by pitting the Northern and Southern contingents against each other. Having healed his seven wounds, Ken initially resists his savior-destiny, even
though Shin has locked Ken's Princess-babe Julia (Isako Washio) in a golden cage. Moved by the human misery at a resistance camp, Ken battles Shin's stormtroopers under the leadership of Jackal (Chris Penn).
After trekking away from the rag-tag underdogs, Ken and Northern Star guerrilla Bat (Dante Brasco) return to find the residents of the wasteland outpost massacred and Bat's sister Lynn (Nalona Herron) endangered due to her psychic knowledge of Ken's game plan. As Ken marches to unseat the
supernaturally empowered Lord Shin, Jackal terrorizes Julia. By the time resourceful Julia destroys the headgear that keeps Jackal's head from exploding, Ken gains the upper hand over Lord Shin, whose flesh-tearing power deserts him. In slaying Shin, Ken restores the Northern-Southern Star balance
which his late father devoutly championed to maintain peace.
Although action buffs may enjoy the martial arts expertise of studly star Gary Daniels and a team of masterful stuntmen, viewers also may feel cheated, as if this gruesome downer were punishing them for any pleasure they garner. Might makes right in most superhero spectacles, but this film has no
inherent nobility, no milk of human kindness, and no tongue-in-cheek humor to leaven its oppressive hero worship.
Presumably there's a market for futuristic adventures about master races, but do fans want their he-man wish fulfillment filmed in washed-out sepia and laced with lip-smacking brutality? If the answer is yes, then they are welcome to this action pic where dismemberment seems to be a hobby. FIST OF
THE NORTH STAR is as much action-jammed fun as attending a vivisection demonstration. (Graphic violence, profanity.) leave a comment
