Emperor's New Clothes

Rating: 1/10 (30 January 2001)

Why have people gone overboard about this film? It's not awful, but it is far from great. The fight scenes are okay, but mostly take place in the dark. The flying sequences are farcical. The plot makes Star Wars look like Tolstoy. The story is too uneven to either be an ensemble piece or to focus on one character. Many of the characters key to the plot are not even seen. There are some great sequences, but I've seen better episodes of the 80s TV classic Monkey. I have thoroughly enjoyed Lee's work in the past - Ice Storm, East Drink Man Woman - but this is not his greatest. It did not deserve a nomination, let alone a win at the Globes. My only theory is that the normal Ang Lee crowd who went to see this have never seen a decent action movie, and so have nothing to compare it with.