Disappointingly Silly

Rating: 7/10 (2 February 2001)

Considering that at the moment IMDb users' rating of this movie is 12th best of all time, I was expecting a lot; I've rarely gone into a film with so positive an attitude. Yes, the fight scenes are easily the best I've ever seen, but there really wasn't much more to it than that. I was willing the story to do something unexpected, or to be different from that which seems so standard for this kind of film - the master who wants to stop fighting his enemy, the apprentice who won't listen, etc. All pretty cliched really, but that's not necessarily a negative point! Because nothing happened that surprised me, it struggled to hold my interest; but thank goodness for those fight scenes!! Some of the cinematography is quite beautiful, and the action direction is splendid, but unfortunately the emotional bits (like a "good" character dying) often just came off as funny. And what is that flying stuff all about?! That pushes a story attempting to be at least slightly serious over the edge into downright silly! (It did look quite cool though.)
Overall, fairly good fun, quite amusing (both intentionally and unintentionally), a little slow in places, and a lot silly. Definitely not the 12th best film of all time, though - sorry. 6/10.