Very well executed

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

First things first: The surface aspects of Helios are outrageously good. The production value rivals Hollywood films with convincing large scale sets, international location shooting, subtle photo-real CGI, gorgeous cinematography, and rip-roaring action scenes. Speaking of action scenes, Helios' gun battles are firmly in the new wave of Hong Kong gun play: Hard-hitting machine gun battles with a dash of real-world tactical flare. They resemble more the thrilling shootout in Michael Mann's Heat rather than John Woo's elegant work. This action style works well for thrillers and HK cinema have gotten damn good at it in recent years.Sadly, Helios' plotting and narrative are also notably Hollywood- esque with shallow characters, contrived emotions, and ludicrous plot all held together by tightly paced editing and actors that demand you look at them due to their great acting or great looks. It all still manages to be compelling, but none of it holds up on reflection. Despite its flaws, Helios could normally be recommended as a fun "turn off your brain" action thriller and that would be that. Alas, the ending makes the recommendation much harder. Without going into specifics, just know that there is no satisfaction to be had in any way. No closure, no justice, no explanation. Viewers will have to decide for themselves if it's worth watching a movie that entertains mightily then reverses all of that good will in the last 10 minutes.

The film began with a crashed planes being inspected by an officer from MSS (Ministry of State Security, China's version of CIA and FBI combined), followed by an nuclear facility in Korea being attacked and an important object taken.The story is about a black market trade taking place in Hong Kong of a South Korean nuclear weapon named DP8, which is the smallest nuclear weapon ever created. (In reality, South Korea is not supposed to have any nuclear weapons) A task force comprised of Hong Kong police, Korean Intelligence and an enlisted physicist sets out to defuse with the situation.In the middle of the film the MSS official from mainland China intervened with a secret higher priority, but eventually they are all bested by the criminal master mind named Helios.This film is paced in a fashion favored by Chinese (but not by Americans from the reviews I saw). Every twist of the plot left me puzzled with some more questions, yet despite being prepared for surprises, when the big reveal happened, I was surprised.Elements catering to audience from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Korea are obvious. However, this film is not strong on character building, I'm not even sure who is the main character of the film, since non of the characters' personality is deeply depicted.Story of this film is not ended, as the criminal mastermind is still at large. A continuing film is expected.

I went to see Helios with no preconceived idea of the critics response and fearing the worse but I was pleasantly surprised and had a good thrill thanks to a few decent action scenes and I felt entertained throughout, which I cannot say about Cold War, one of the film makers previous effort. The cast was good and I loved the way each country was presenting itself in a very good light but different from one another. Modern movie clichés if you like...Anyway,it had the style one associates with the directors but again, unlike Cold War, it actually looked like HK and made it an OTT version of the city which suited the movie ambitious concept(some may say pretentious). At times walking the fine line between slick and cheesy, it got me involved and I will go and see the sequel.A good actioner with enough pizzaz to satisfy fans of Asian commercial movies.

this is a very poorly produced film with weak story line and tons of unnecessary scenes. unlike most low quality hong kong movies, this movie used korean, hong kong and Chinese actors which tried to please audiences of the three different places. however, low quality story is inconsistent, all the elements are poorly connected and the story. after i left the cinema, most audiences are not happy about the money they paid, the time they spent, and most important, they expectations they had. if you want to see good hong kong movie, i recommended you Overheard [竊聽 風雲] 1-3.