Didn't live up to expectations

Rating: 7/10 (20 February 2001)

I guess I am not much of a fan of fantasy-type stories, but from all the rave reviews of this film, I thought there would be more drama to this story. However, I was disappointed. I found the story to be similar to Star Wars -- you know, the battle for the child between the good and the evil, that type of thing -- but not as exciting or even as complex. And, apart from the flying fight scenes (I particularly liked the one in the treetops), I didn't find it as visually interesting as Star Wars.
But worse, I found this film to be somewhat slow and talky, especially at the beginning. Now, I can understand and speak Mandarin, and being able to hear their conversation did not make it any more interesting. In fact, I thought their voices were stilted and pretty much devoid of any expression.

Okay, it was reasonably entertaining, but emotionally, it didn't grab me at all.