Threequel that doesn’t quite live up to the original, ‘Iron Angels 3’ is nevertheless some dangerously stunt-filled fun with a returning Moon Lee. This time she’s sent undercover to help bust a Thai-based militia targeting government officials, led by a vicious leader called The Blonde (Katy Hickman). Meanwhile, her other Iron Angels agents (a returning Alex Fong and Kharina from part 2, along with franchise newcomer Ralph Chan) are also sent to Thailand to help with the mission but spend most of their time taking part in a Thai boxing tournament! However, after some convolution, a good dose of weirdness (!), and a surfeit of decent action, the angels unite to take on the full force of the militia for some heavy-duty firepower and action the series is known for.
Well, they sort of unite, as Moon Lee either spends a good chunk of the film working alone or disappears for a good part of the running time, while Alex Fong et al. spend their time either looking at computers or taking part in the aforementioned Thai boxing match. After a strong start (assassinations, Moon going undercover, several decent fights), the narrative becomes a bit haphazard, cutting between the thread with Moon and the thread with Fong. It’s not Godfrey Ho levels of slapdash cutting between two plot threads (!) but does feel somewhat disjointed and disappointing that Moon Lee is missing for large sections of the film.
She also disappointingly doesn’t get a final showdown with the main villain (a great Katy Hickman in seemingly her only Hong Kong film role!), that honour going to Fong and Chan, who take on The Blonde (and her army of goons) in a riotous third-act action blowout featuring endless machine-gun strafing, motorcycles mounted with automatic weapons, martial arts action and (err) jet packs! It’s some barnstorming and dangerous-looking stunt-filled action partly overseen (I believe) by a pre-‘Police Story’/‘Rumble in the Bronx’ Stanley Tong.
The sojourn to the Thai boxing event also gives us a great fight between Fong and a young Panna Rittikrai (‘Ong Bak’/‘Born to Fight’) and, while the film is certainly rough around the edges and lacks copious Moon Lee (though she does get several decent fights), ‘Iron Angels 3’ is at least stuffed with enough old-school Hong Kong-style action to make it a breezy 90 minutes of Thai-lensed, action-packed fun.
