Big-budget Hong Kong action films that aren't set in ancient Mainland China are seemingly becoming more and more of a rarity these days, and so The Viral Factor has been met with a great deal of anticipation by many fans, this particular reviewer included. Unfortunately, while the movie does offer up some competent action sequences, the meandering story and script ultimately hurts a lot of the momentum the pyrotechnics build up.

Most reviews point out that The Viral Factor's biggest problem is the script, and I will agree with that. The base story of a cop (Jay Chou) and criminal (Nicholas Tse) teaming up to stop a would-be terrorist (Andy On) from releasing a lethal form of smallpox in order to make money off of the vaccine is decent enough on its' own. But the screenwriters piled on so many twists and coincidences that matters become ridiculous.

I won't point out all of the idiosyncrasies present in the story in order to prevent spoilers, but here's just a short list of them. For starters, the cop was wounded by the terrorist and has a bullet in the head which will kill him in two weeks. While on the way to Malaysia to meet up with his brother (who happens to be a criminal) one of the fellow passengers on the plane is a doctor (Lin Peng) who not only knows the world's best brain surgeon, she's also the foremost expert on the virus. And all that takes place in about in the first half-hour -- there's still about another ninety minutes to go, and it doesn't get any better. Better get your favorite beverage handy, because this is going to be a long haul, my friends.

What saves The Viral Factor are the action sequences. Director Dante Lam has always been good at depicting cinematic carnage, and this is no exception. However, even the action feels somehow hollow. Don't get me wrong, it's fun stuff and worth watching if you like lots of bullets flying and big explosions, but everything here comes off as more Michael Bay than John Woo. The action is all kinetics without any emotion behind it. There's little in the way of uniqueness or inventiveness presented, which is a staple of the best Hong Kong action cinema pictures, and sorely missing from this, and most of the other recent releases from Hong Kong.

RATING: 6.5