This movie could've been a lot better in many aspects. For one, why must many Korean action movies insist on injecting comic relief in some of the more serious scenes. Some fight scenes were obviously meant to make the audience laugh even though the series of actions leading up to it are extremely serious. For example, when the hero fights with the monk (who is out to assassinate him), they were practically fighting Jackie-Chan style until finally the monk dies. WTF?!? If it's a serious movie, then keep it so.
Besides the identity crisis issue, this movie has no plot. Unfortunately, this is true for many Asian movies. The director must've be hoping that the action or cgi will make up for the lack of storyline because the strongest hint of a plot in this movie is that a Prince must be brought back to his village alive so that he can rule his people. That's it! I've basically spoiled the whole movie with that line. Asian movies disappoint me because they have no story. Until they start incorporating movies with a plot, their film industries will never be up to par with Hollywood (classic Hollywood anyway).
Thirdly, there is absolutely no character development. All you see is the same facial expression on these characters and short flashbacks that are suppose to make you either feel pity for them or despise them. This is a 2 hour long movie of talking, fighting, talking, fighting, talking, etc. You get the point. Anyway, when you get to the end of the movie, the hero supposedly knows a special move perfectly which is used to kill the villain. How corny is that? There is no mention of how that move is performed or how he learned it or who taught him. It just came out of nowhere and kills the villain in a flurry of fast camera moving scenes.
Here are other things that are wrong with this movie. It is too long (it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't boring). It doesn't give off a genuine feeling of an adventure of epic proportions (ei. lord of the rings, narnia, crouching tiger, etc). Also the characters are one dimensional and only wear one or two expressions through out the movie at most. The dialog was weak. Lastly, the picture quality was a letdown at certain points. Some scenes would look like it was taken from old stock footage.
The movie wasn't a complete letdown. The goods include thundering fight scenes (you gotta watch it on DTS), good choreography, and sometimes good scenery.
Besides the identity crisis issue, this movie has no plot. Unfortunately, this is true for many Asian movies. The director must've be hoping that the action or cgi will make up for the lack of storyline because the strongest hint of a plot in this movie is that a Prince must be brought back to his village alive so that he can rule his people. That's it! I've basically spoiled the whole movie with that line. Asian movies disappoint me because they have no story. Until they start incorporating movies with a plot, their film industries will never be up to par with Hollywood (classic Hollywood anyway).
Thirdly, there is absolutely no character development. All you see is the same facial expression on these characters and short flashbacks that are suppose to make you either feel pity for them or despise them. This is a 2 hour long movie of talking, fighting, talking, fighting, talking, etc. You get the point. Anyway, when you get to the end of the movie, the hero supposedly knows a special move perfectly which is used to kill the villain. How corny is that? There is no mention of how that move is performed or how he learned it or who taught him. It just came out of nowhere and kills the villain in a flurry of fast camera moving scenes.
Here are other things that are wrong with this movie. It is too long (it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't boring). It doesn't give off a genuine feeling of an adventure of epic proportions (ei. lord of the rings, narnia, crouching tiger, etc). Also the characters are one dimensional and only wear one or two expressions through out the movie at most. The dialog was weak. Lastly, the picture quality was a letdown at certain points. Some scenes would look like it was taken from old stock footage.
The movie wasn't a complete letdown. The goods include thundering fight scenes (you gotta watch it on DTS), good choreography, and sometimes good scenery.