PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological*
Ironically, though I rate DOA as "poor" in terms of symbolic complexity, it's a lot more fun. As noted above, three tough girls from disparate backgrounds (Jaime Pressley, Devon Aoki and Holly Valance) are drawn into an island-bound tournament (shades of ENTER THE DRAGON!) for a substantial monetary prize offered by the insidious mastermind Donovan (Eric Roberts). Aoki's character is motivated by a desire to find her brother, who disappeared during an earlier tournament; the brother's disappearance is later tied into the villain's fiendish plan to perfect a device that allows him to duplicate and supersede the abilities of any martial-arts fighters.
Corey Yeun, veteran of several Jet Li/Hong Kong actioners, directed this vid-game adaptation, partly filmed on a famous Hong Kong movie set in Heng Dian, China. However, while the three actresses are all adept at the fighting-stunts given them, it's quite evident that none of them are capable of the extreme athletics of the best HK cinema battles. Frankly, even the big warehouse battle of CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE is superior to any of the fights in DOA. This may be one reason the film approaches the girls' battles with a comic tone, though not to the extent of ridiculing the central heroines. Devon Aoki probably gets the best single battle, fighting a huge muscular opponent who attacks her in her hotel, while Pressley gets the most amusing battle: battling it out with her own dad (a Hulk Hogan-like wrestler) in order to prove her abilities. Finally it all winds up with a big multi-character battle in which villain Roberts, souped up by his miracle device, nearly beats all of the heroines. He's rather comically beaten when his device is simply removed (too cheap to spring for an implant, guy?) and Aoki kills him by blowing up his entire island.
Both this film (and the other one I originally reviewed) are decent time-wasters, but fall pretty far short of the realm of great action-cinema.
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