Though it is best known for kung fu and action movies, the Hong Kong movie industry has shown over the years that it can create good films in any genre. That is, unless it comes to science fiction, where their entries always seem to lag behind their western counterparts, and Benny Chan's latest big-budget opus, City Under Siege, is another unfortunate example of this trend.

The vacuous Aaron Kwok plays the hero here in the guise of Sunny, an orphan who was raised by his uncle (Yuen Wah) in the circus and has dreams of becoming a great knife thrower like his father, but is regulated to being a clown. All of that changes after Sunny is exposed to a cache of WWII-era Japanese biological weapons, which gives him super human powers. Under the tutelage of a TV reporter (Hsu Chi) looking to restore her flagging career, Sunny becomes a sensation on the streets of Hong Kong. Trouble is, some of his fellow circus performers (led by Ngai Sing) were exposed as well, and they're not using their newfound abilities for good.

Though this is a premise for good brainless fun, Benny Chan overextends himself. At 110 minutes, City Under Siege feels more than a bit bloated, but since Chan was also the writer and editor of the film, no one stepped in to say "Hey, Benny, maybe we don't need two musical montages in a row." That's something that annoyingly takes place in the third act, which should be a time for propelling the story towards its' conclusion, not padding the running time with slow-motion sepia-filtered shots backed by a sappy Cantopop ballad. Combined with some throwaway comedic scenes (such as a painfully unfunny and totally unnecessary sequence featuring Aaron in a fat suit) and sappy melodrama -- there's one character that fights for about two minutes, is wounded, and takes then about eight minutes to actually die via a ludicrously weepy scene -- Chan's limitations are shown here in full force, much to the chagrin of the audience.

Chan can usually pull out of these sorts of pitfalls with his action scenes, which are usually very well made and fun to watch. While there are a few exciting segments -- mostly the ones involving Wu Jing, who plays a Mainland special agent sent to Hong Kong to take care of the "mutants" -- most of the action fails to impress. Having the actors buried under makeup that is supposed to make them more fearsome, but ends up making them look like rejects from a GWAR concert isn't a good start, and having their moves tweaked with CGI effects that are on the level of your average SyFy straight-to-cable release is the final nail in the coffin as to City Under Siege actually providing some enjoyment for the audience, unless they're willing to ingest a few beverages and take on the film Mystery Science Theatre style.

RATING: 4