This film looks fantastic. Its one of the most spectacular films I've ever seen. It seems as though Tsui Hark and crew suddenly were given away to truly unleash their imaginations for the first time with computer graphics and the went for it. This film is simply wonderful to look at.
The problem is that the film feels like its starting in the middle and assumes you'll pick it up as you go along. Thats fine but its at least 25 minutes before we start to get anything like character development and by that time I was hopeless unconnected to anything except the visuals.
The plot has something to do with the battle of good and evil in the sacred mountains of Zu in China. The story starts hundreds of years ago and then jumps forward once then twice in what becomes a story of lovers reunited over time while battling a great evil called, I kid you not, Insomnia.
This is a remake/sequel/rethinking of the earlier Hong Kong film Zu Warriors of the Magic Mountain also by Tsui Hark. The earlier film looks less impressive compared to this one but it pushed the limits of what you could do with martial arts films and fantasy and set the stage for many classics that followed. The "original" film has a slightly tighter narrative thread, that film at least had a place to step on before things got jumbled.
This is a great film to look at and I'm certain that should it ever get a US release this will play better on the big screen than it does on TV, simply because you'll get a sense of scale to the spectacle.
Visuals are ten out of ten. The story telling is a two. Split the difference five out of ten over all.
The problem is that the film feels like its starting in the middle and assumes you'll pick it up as you go along. Thats fine but its at least 25 minutes before we start to get anything like character development and by that time I was hopeless unconnected to anything except the visuals.
The plot has something to do with the battle of good and evil in the sacred mountains of Zu in China. The story starts hundreds of years ago and then jumps forward once then twice in what becomes a story of lovers reunited over time while battling a great evil called, I kid you not, Insomnia.
This is a remake/sequel/rethinking of the earlier Hong Kong film Zu Warriors of the Magic Mountain also by Tsui Hark. The earlier film looks less impressive compared to this one but it pushed the limits of what you could do with martial arts films and fantasy and set the stage for many classics that followed. The "original" film has a slightly tighter narrative thread, that film at least had a place to step on before things got jumbled.
This is a great film to look at and I'm certain that should it ever get a US release this will play better on the big screen than it does on TV, simply because you'll get a sense of scale to the spectacle.
Visuals are ten out of ten. The story telling is a two. Split the difference five out of ten over all.