HIS martial arts offering starts with a real bang, a superbly choreographed, visually breathtaking fight scene, but transcends into a tedious, unoriginal gore fest.

Liu Jian, (Jet Li) is a Chinese intelligence officer who goes on assignment and becomes embroiled in a conspiracy.

Like the best Hollywood heroes, he is accused of a murder he didn't commit and goes on the run, fearing for his life.

He comes across Jessica (Bridget Fonda) and would you Adam and Eve it, she saw the murder and can clear his name.

Luckily for the plot, Jessica doesn't want to testify as her daughter is in mortal danger.

The term "plot" is used in the loosest sense. Any semblance of one is merely present as a vehicle to carry the gratuitous violence. If you're on the losing side of a fight in Scene 1 of this film, you aren't gonna make it to Scene 2 with your limbs intact.

There are also a lot of coincidences and lack of logical explanations for events.

Either the writers were not clever enough to explain what was happening or they figured true martial arts fans couldn't give a monkey's about plot, explanation or any form of logic.

HC