I'm rating it so high because of the haters, i admit it.
The actual movie is not terrible, but definitely not fantastic in the acting, scriptwriting and editing departments.
BUT!
There is a surprising and unexpectedly wonderful atmosphere to it. The scenes and characters are setup with a style and homage to certain western elements, with some effort. There is something of lord of the rings and something of Disney in it, more or less subtly sprinkled in. So the side characters can be surprisingly colorful, and the emotions evoked very relatable for a western audience, despite being a Chinese movie through and through.
Likewise, i like the attempt to put eastern and western medieval cultures side by side. No effort spent in portraying culture clashes. Both cultures simply exist, bad things happens between them which are unrelated to cultural or racial differences. This fantasy world simply makes it all look normal. Physical differences are generally ignored and only mentioned as curious identifying traits, as the two races are naturally separated by location. It's a simply rendered, but a surprisingly compelling and wonderful reality, where goodness is shared between very different-looking people simply because it's good and evil fought together simply because it's evil. It's a freeing experience, and perhaps the image of a better world in its simplicity. It certainly won a soft spot in me and i recommend seeing it for the whole strange and wonderful experience, if not an exceedingly compelling one.
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