This is an awkward movie to review. Firstly, it’s being released widely a long time after its original release, two years ago, and suddenly people are praising it as among the best movies of this year, which to me just seems weird. Then there’s the fact that to me it seemed to be an almost perfect clone of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Then there’s the fact that, despite this, it’s actually pretty good.

Visually, it’s stunning. If the movie is eligible for Oscars (which I think it is), I imagine cinematography is its best shot. If you like unique fight scenes, you’ll find plenty of new stuff to love here.

Tonally, it’s far too much like Crouching… for me, and Tan Dun’s score, which sounds like Crouching outtakes, doesn’t help at all.

I know I need to watch this movie in a different frame of mind, at a later date, and give it a fairer audience. For now, it wasn’t much of an experience for me, except in some pretty incredible patches.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 18th, 2004 at 11:22 pm in Movie Reviews, unrated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.