Notable Cast: Max Zhang, Aarif Rahman, Jiang Luxia, Mark
Luu, Zhang Yi, Xue Jianing, Ye Liu
Honestly, I’ll watch any film with Max Zhang in it. His rise
to leading A-list stardom in China has been a blast to follow and he quickly
becomes a highlight of any film he’s in. When it was announced he would be in a
new military action flick, Wolf Pack, along with Aarif Rahman and Jiang
Luxia - two very underrated stars in their own right - I was doubly in. A
military group led by Zhang kicking ass, taking names, and setting their sites
on out-America-ing Hollywood in military actioners with weirdly patriotic
themes? Hell yeah, I’m in.
For all of its bullet blasting, secret character heroics,
and a handful of exciting action set pieces, Wolf Pack is a movie that
throws many punches and only lands a few of them. A charm is inherent in many
of its ideas and a few of its executions. Still, its narrative could be more
straightforward, and its characters - despite some fantastic casting - are
bland blends of various tropes and unfinished arcs. Wolf Pack does a lot
of loud howling, but it's howling its loudest into a void that swallows any
sound and kills any lingering echo after the credits roll.