Exciting and silly at the same time

Rating: 7/10 (11 January 2002)

The first part of this movie has some of the most incredible fighting scenes ever seen in any movie. They are even better then those in "the Matrix". That being said, the Matrix did offer a plausible explanation about why people are able to float in mid-air and walk up a wall. This movie offers no such explanation (at least, I can't remember it), which is OK during the fights because they are so exciting. However, this movie also features several very silly chase scenes in which the characters pursue each other by literally "floating" over roof tops, and one very silly scene about a fight in the top of large pine trees. These scenes really stretch the bounds of credibility..
The rest of the movie is pretty average: nice costumes, nice acting, but nothing special. The story is pretty hard to grasp and turns into a really tiring love story in the second half. All of the good fights are in the first half of the movie too, and the end of the movie is an anti-climax.
All in all I really don't understand what's so great about this movie. It's well made, it has some exciting fights, but it's also plain silly, boring and cliche at too many times. I'd give it ** out of **** stars