Shaolin Vs Evil Dead: Ultimate Power (2006)

This hopper fell flat on its face

Shaolin vs Evil Dead: Ultimate Power was bound to receive a low score from me for the egregious error of not actually being a sequel to the first film Shaolin vs Evil Dead. Did I mention the first film ended on a cliffhanger? The makers of these films decided to give us a prequel-sequel that went in a completely different direction to the previous film. To quote a vampire, “Bite me.”

Dragon and his wife Phoenix White are called upon to save a small village from a gang of roving bandits. While completing their task they end up poisoned. Phoenix’s unborn child also suffers from poisoning. She begs their elder to save her child against his better judgement as the child would be born with an evil poison in his heart. Years later the leadership of the clan is given to Chiu Yu instead of Innocent, sending him into a murderous rage like a good nepo baby. Chiu Yu must study to gain the skills to purge the evil from Innocent’s heart. (note of clarification Chiu Yu was Gordon Liu’s character from the first film who was named Pak, Innocent was Louis Fan’s character from the first film whose name was Hak/Black. Moon and Sun were also renamed with their roles reduced, Fire was completely missing)

First off, this film committed a cardinal sin in a jiangshi/hopping vampire movie---it was boring. The first hour dragged horribly. Being a prequel with melodrama doesn’t mean I will care about any of the characters. They could have summed up this material in 10 minutes. Gordon Liu didn’t arrive until after the hour mark which was too little too late. Fan’s Black and Shannon Yiu’s Moon were scammers in the first film but not completely malevolent. The character changes here were jarring. Unlike the humor in the first film, Ultimate Power went dark. Much of it made little sense.

The martial arts choreography was abysmal. The wire-work was awful, seriously, kung fu flicks from the 80s had better leaping and flying. Characters flipped and twirled near their opponents without connecting. When they did connect, the kicks and fists were more like gentle pushes. The moves were criminally slow for 2006. The first film had some CGI, the sequel was dominated by it. If filmmakers are going to use this much CGI, it better be good. And it was laughably bad.

Shaolin vs Evil Dead ended on an unresolved cliffhanger, this film’s ending wasn’t as awful, but it wasn’t great either. I actually laughed it was so dreadful and out of left field, or in this case--outer space. The acting, editing, writing, and continuity drove my score down, a painful thing because I like Gordon Liu and hopping vampires. Basically, this hopper sucked.

5 November 2025

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