Rainero Isandro (Hector Echavarria – Unrivaled) is close to retirement and has a winning streak longer than his arm. Just one fight away from calling it quits, Rainero finds himself blackmailed to participate in an underground fighting syndicate – one that requires the victor to kill their opponents. With Rainero’s wife drugged with a deadly toxin he has no choice but to fight to the death in a bid to free himself and his wife from the clutches of the underground fighting world.
First off, Death Warrior doesn’t star Quinton “Rampage” Jackson; it only features him for about 10mins. After that it’s yet another Hector Echavarria substandard action film with very little to get excited about. Jackson is probably relieved to not be in this more than he has to, with The A-Team firmly putting him on the map he doesn’t need to waste time with this kind of movie anymore. I would feel very hard done by the cover artwork for the DVD though, it makes out that he is the star of the show and that certainly isn’t the case here.
Death Warrior (much like Echavarria’s last effort Unrivaled) is the type of straight-to-DVD fare that clogged up video rental stores during the late 80’s and early 90’s. It’s by-the-numbers action that rarely gives the viewer anything of note but does tick the boxes for plenty of fights and featuring lots of half naked women. But in this day and age that’s not enough and the fights never raise the energy levels or the excitement factor. It just feels too predictable and dull, even though it features a lot of UFC fighters like Georges St-Pierre and Rashad Evans.
If you are looking for plot-development or characterisation you are in the wrong place. The story has been done to death before and I have no problem with retreading the same premise but I was hoping that its lack of plot originality would be weighed against a barrage of impressive fight sequences. Sadly this isn’t the case as the fights rarely excite… the exact same problem Unrivaled had. The final battle does have some cool moves but ultimately we’ve seen it done better many times before and to a far more bone-crunching conclusion.
Death Warrior is a waste of time. The fights don’t live up to their hype and Echavarria tries to make the same movie every time without learning from his mistakes. This will find a niche market but for anyone looking for a decent action movie that doesn’t feel 20 years old, steer clear of Death Warrior.
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