User reviews

I have found a number of Chinese movies and television shows to be entertaining, so I don't have an automatic prejudice against them, as apparently some other IMDb users have. This particular Chinese movie has some interest in that while it was officially based on a book, it's clear that it took a little inspiration from the American blockbuster "Independence Day". It aims to stand up well to its inspiration, and to a degree it does, having top notch cinematography, sets, and props. The CGI does look a little cartoony at times, but that didn't bother me too much, since it's often that way in American blockbusters.

What DID bother me, however, was the script. The scriptwriters definitely should have had some professional feedback to fine tune it before filming started. As it is, the movie first starts off with an almost incomprehensible opening, as if several pages of explanation had been written but were ripped out. A bigger problem is with the characters of the movie. There is no attempt to make the alien invaders anything more than a mindless robot-like foe. Also, there's little attempt to flesh out the human characters; they generally come across as stock characters you have seen in other movies before instead of having true and interesting personalities. Also, the story comes to a halt for long periods several times, resulting in some dull patches.

While this Chinese blockbuster is a better than the recent Chinese blockbuster "The Wandering Earth", it's not by much. I will end this review by saying what I said for that earlier film: If Chinese filmmakers really want their homegrown blockbusters to be embraced by a world audience, they really need to make sure the scripts are decent enough before filming starts. If that were to happen, Chinese movies would start being serious competition for Hollywood movies.

If you like Chinese way making movies you like it but it is not as macho as Hollywood movies

I know China is home of great technology and literature. To make the jump to cinema should be a breeze, yet they keep churning up these terrible movies that start with exposition of what happened instead of showing us, with people doing all kinds of stupid things, with actors being really bad with mediocre CGI and music. French movie making with Chinese money! Make it happen.

The movie is a failure because it doesn't make you feel anything. The threat is an undefined alien ship that doesn't communicate, its technology never investigated and its weapon a cheap steal from Independence Day. The main characters have 1 big scene where they drink together and relate to each other as human beings, other than that they act like robots the entire movie. Why would you care? Everybody is doing their job and sacrificing themselves with calm or occasionally shouting a dead friend's name. An AI would have made a better movie.

Bottom line: I think they could have done a lot more with what they had.

I want to like this movie but don't waste your time. Wolf Warrior 2 and the Great Wall got a 7/10 from me. Wandering Earth doesn't make a lot of sense but there was at least some good story lines, characters and decent cinematic. That got an 8. Operation Red Sea got a 4 and I thought that was pretty bad.

Shanghai Fortress is a whole other level of "face palming, oh my god, what am I watching kinda bad." The premise of the story was already kinda contrive but they don't spend any time explaining what the hell is going on. No setup, no background, no nothing. Then there was whole love story and team building aspect that was just thrown in there to tug at heart strings.

It's like a 14 year old wrote the script but any other 14 year old would have done a better job. Yes, it's that bad. They should have saved some money from all that CGI and hire a better team of script writers.

It's definitely not a 10/10 - those reviews must be Chinese people here just to support their country's endeavors.

As a kids film it's not too bad. Simplistic script and bland dialogue feels like it was written by children, and the music is sappy. The sound design is lacking and the sound mix is flat. There are very few moments of good acting. The CGI is not too bad.

What would help the story to bring it into adult-land would be a depiction of the wider global situation and more on the aliens intent, more artistic direction and of course a mature script.

The plot mixes love story, war and science fiction, but none of then has been clearly expressed.

Also the voice problem, the voice is dubbed by actors themselves, however, it cannot match their mouthes in screen!

An interesting comment in Chinese movie web 'Dou Ban' reads below:

"Wandering Earth had opened the gate of Chinese science fiction movie. Now Shanghai Fortress has closed it again"

While the box office has been a disater for this rubbish, I'm still having good hopes on Chinese SF movies' future.

Chain of events is very weird, logic sometime fails. Aliens are presented as idiots, also the command center defences are lame. Le Lan character had a role but I still didn't get what it was. seems like the humans know that the bullet guns are not efficient against the aliens and still all the command center troops are packed with them. The FX is great but shots of slow mo could be much better. And the gun... really?! it's obviously someone is trying to compensate ;).

I am disappointed with this movie. This was a big-budget movie with all the superstars. However, such a mediocre storyline and special effect, I thought I was watching a film from the Scifi channel!

Oddly enough, then "Shanghai Fortress" had managed to stay under my radar, and it wasn't before I was browsing through the movies on Netflix that it happened to pop up.

I was immediately interested in watching the movie, given the synopsis and also because it starred Shu Qi.

First of all, then it should be said that the storyline written by Jiang Nan wasn't exactly rocket science. This was pretty much generic to the core. It was everything you could and would expect from a sci-fi action movie of this type, for better or worse. Well, at least you know what you are getting yourself into when you sit down to watch "Shanghai Fortress". This is hardly a movie that sets new milestones or move existing borders.

That being said, then I will move straight on to saying that while the storyline was generic and predictable, then the movie was actually quite entertaining and enjoyable, nonetheless.

The visual department really upped their game in this movie. And it was such a visual treat to sit down and watch the CGI effects in "Shanghai Fortress", and I think this is actually the first Chinese movie I have seen that have put on this type of grand display usage of CGI. It was marvelous and it really carried the movie a lot of the way, given the shortcomings of the storyline and script.

They had some fairly nicely talented actors and actresses on the cast list. I wasn't familiar with the most of them, which actually is a nice thing for me, as I enjoy seeing new talents and not associate their faces with previously played roles and characters. But for, I must admit, then it was Shu Qi that had the spotlight in "Shanghai Fortress". I have been a fan of hers for a long, long time and she was good in this movie, though it wasn't her best performance in her career.

All in all, if you enjoy a good old fashioned alien invasion movie, then give "Shanghai Fortress" a chance. I enjoyed it from start to end, and I am rating the movie a solid six out of ten stars.

Having watched Shanghai Fortress its hard not to see this rather mediocre film as political.

Its message seems to be China is leading the world and is at the same time, its saviour. If this sounds familiar, that's because the US has pushed the same message for years. Times are changing, that's for sure.

So putting aside politics how does this film stand up as entertainment. Certainly the special effects are well done and the pacing is mostly decent. Its does drag a little in the middle but not for too long.

The romantic interest between the young male lead and older female counterpart, seems a bit overcooked and absurd. As is the rather starchy and militaristic tone of the film, which reduces the key players to caricatures.

In shor,t this one's ok but you might find yourself rolling your eyes from time to time when you consider its rather simplistic overtones. 5/10.

Movie cg is spectacular. The story is about the friendship of the group of soldiers. I don't care about this. It's not too bad but the gun item in this movie need to improve. These soldier using regular bullet to fight with bulletproof aliens. It looks non sense. The fight will get advantage if they get good weapon and armor and may increase the review score of this movie.

Decent effort from Chinese movie houses. Interesting to see they are projecting themselves as "the last hope of mankind and the earth against alien attack". This title was unofficially held by Hollywood films with NASA backdrop, until now. Great to see China joining the party, slowly and steadily. Did liked The Wandering Earth also.

Not sure why so many bad reviews. It is surely not that bad. And definitely not this 3.5 rating. This one deserves more than that. Have seen much worse Hollywood sci-fi flicks with better ratings.

My first review on IMDB. Because I want to save you guys from wasting your time on this movie. Other reviewers are right! This is the worst storyline ever! I understand how they try to build a love story into a sci-fi alien war movie, but come on! After so many years of fighting against aliens, they should know the aliens are bulletproof. And they kept on shooting the aliens with regular pistol. If they take out the better weapon at the end and start using them, Human can defeat the alien race in no time.

A cross between the Chinese versions of 'Ender's Game' and 'Independence Day' which is probably better as a book as it seems to skip over a lot of stuff and the monologues would fit better. There's lots of dramatic music and inspiring scenes, but also lots of ham-fisted teen romance and a lackluster plot. The mix of Chinese and English voice acting is off-putting and although the military might and special effects are good (if a bit too CGI heavy), it's all too clean and family friendly. The plot is predictable and the characters are undeveloped, but the finale is pretty epic and exciting.

" Shanghai Fortress " was for sure not a memorable movie. Even having watched it two nights ago, I can't even recall the actual point of this movie.

The movie had a weak plot. The whole romance was just boring and it didn't add anyting exciting to the plot, as there was zero development. The friendship betweet the "pilots" was really good and it gave a youthfull spin to the movie. The acting was good as well. In addition, some of the CGI were good, but others were just horrible.

Overall, the story was bad. There was no plot, just a faint idea of where they wanted this movie to go.

So, three out of ten.

Poor acting, basically a crappy Chinese version of independence day.

The success of the wolf and the wandering earth has made some utilitarians feel that they have found shortcuts, so there is such a wave of sci-fi and screaming movies. However, there is no suitable starring, two unqualified plots, and three unreasonable feelings. For such a piece of garbage that has been hard-pressed and effective, the score of 3 is already very high.

I liked it alot. Good special effects too. Not sure why so many bad reviews. Movies are made to entertain. Who cares about plots & actors. It was fast moving & intriguing. The subtitles were a bit too fast for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. A nice Saturday afternoon flick. Get some popcorn ready & prepare for a thrill ride.

This movie wasn't as bad as the other reviews I see here. We have seen worse Hollywood movies and yet they rank higher.

I am risking in making an assumption here, but I think most of the hate comes from the fact that the "center of the whole world" in this story line is nowhere around USA, but instead in China. This is the same Hollywood does in all of its movies, like the war stories happen nowhere else but in New York and such.

Yes, it has some flaws in the dubbing, they may have done it better, but probably ran out of time.

For real Sci-Fi lovers, they would see a point there. The acting is good, for those who get to know the Chinese culture a bit better. They are shy when it comes to romance, but they are also determined when it comes to work, especially in matters of national security. Chinese culture has another philosophy of life, not everyone is expected to understand them. If we compare to American movies, all world-important decisions come up to a few moments involving love, women and emotions. I highly doubt that in reality, at such odds, one would selfishly think of a few loved persons over the whole population.

I agree that all three story lines: love, war and sci-fi needed a bit polishing and more content probably, but this requires at least two more sequels to properly manage and achieve that feeling of falling in love with the characters.

CGI, not a problem, at moments looks like most of the games we play all the time, so all within expectations and don't really bothered me.

To conclude: Give people the chance to promote their values and culture. There is not only Hollywood in the world, and there sure is diversity. Applause to the team!

...then Roland Emmerich. Why are the Chinese doing this? If they want to rip off Americans there are better things than Independence Day and 2012. This movie is the same type of deal as the previous acclaimed Chinese blockbuster that was on Netflix. It's all Roland Emmerich stuff.

All of it.

The people join army but he didnot cut his hair? if you watch is waste you time

The cgi is really bad, like tv show's cgi budget. The setting? It doesn't feel like the people like at war with the aliens. They don't show any emotion. They pretended to act serious in the control room or whatever you call it. I feel like I am watching a cheap sentai movie with bad story, bad casting, bad acting and bad cgi. No wonder it flops.