The one thing that can be said of this film is its utter bipolarity. Few films have been this bad when misstepped, and this good when right.
Andy Lau turns in a solidly chivalric turn as a wandering warrior-philosopher who aids a small city-state in defending a large, powerful army. He earns the ire of the city-state's opportunistic and mean ruler at the same time, and the love of a beautiful cavalry captain. Sounds like all the ingredients are there but the resulting mix varied wildly in quality. Other than Lau, Korean superstar Ahn Sung Ki as the enemy General, and Wang Zhiwen as the mean little ruler, a lot of the supporting cast is seriously vapid. Nicky Wu as an archer prince is a dishwater-dull Legolas-wannabe, and Choi Si Won as a spoiled prince is equally bad. Fan Bing Bing as the love interest and cavalry captain is lain excruciating. And don't get me started on the poorly-written African character.
The battle scenes are also poorly-filmed. I swear I have recorded better looking battle scenes using a game of "Rome: Total War". The sweeping vistas have moments of bad CGI, and some of the scene transitions, such as having a scene turn from live action to an oil-painting, or an up-front shot of thousands of bodies getting skewered by arrows: lack even the spectacle to be tragic in their artificiality.
And for a film that is about a Battle of Wits, it commits the unpardonable sin of resolving itself with a Deus Ex Machina I shall not reveal here.
Yet, the film is interspersed with moments of rugged beauty and palpable tension, thrills and stoicism, heroism and epic grandeur, that make one wonder how a film that got so much right, could also get so much wrong.
This is a movie I cannot really recommend, or not recommend in any sense. Watch at your own discretion.
Andy Lau turns in a solidly chivalric turn as a wandering warrior-philosopher who aids a small city-state in defending a large, powerful army. He earns the ire of the city-state's opportunistic and mean ruler at the same time, and the love of a beautiful cavalry captain. Sounds like all the ingredients are there but the resulting mix varied wildly in quality. Other than Lau, Korean superstar Ahn Sung Ki as the enemy General, and Wang Zhiwen as the mean little ruler, a lot of the supporting cast is seriously vapid. Nicky Wu as an archer prince is a dishwater-dull Legolas-wannabe, and Choi Si Won as a spoiled prince is equally bad. Fan Bing Bing as the love interest and cavalry captain is lain excruciating. And don't get me started on the poorly-written African character.
The battle scenes are also poorly-filmed. I swear I have recorded better looking battle scenes using a game of "Rome: Total War". The sweeping vistas have moments of bad CGI, and some of the scene transitions, such as having a scene turn from live action to an oil-painting, or an up-front shot of thousands of bodies getting skewered by arrows: lack even the spectacle to be tragic in their artificiality.
And for a film that is about a Battle of Wits, it commits the unpardonable sin of resolving itself with a Deus Ex Machina I shall not reveal here.
Yet, the film is interspersed with moments of rugged beauty and palpable tension, thrills and stoicism, heroism and epic grandeur, that make one wonder how a film that got so much right, could also get so much wrong.
This is a movie I cannot really recommend, or not recommend in any sense. Watch at your own discretion.