Not the kind of movie that I want to watch it twice

Rating: 4/10 (26 March 2018)

The action, the sets (scenery) are beautiful and pleasant for the eyes, despite this I think this movie is overrated.
There were so many plots and characters that were either missed or abandoned.
Jen-Yu got the most spot lights and scenes here, perhaps she is supposed to be the main character but I found that her story wasn't really interesting and her character was very annoying, I get it that she was very talented and brilliant fighter but her personality is such spoiled that she caused many problems to the others. What's the point with sword getting constantly stolen, returned and stolen again. In the beginning, I felt sympathy to her for her arranged marriage when she already had the man she loved (Lo) and wanted to live a free woman, but her immaturity, arrogance in her skills, and throwing tantrum when Shu-Lien only tried to give her wise advice were beyond my nerves. It is fair if she started as annoying character, but I expected character development in her which didn't exist. The flashback sequence showing her love interest (Lo) was too long, I enjoyed the fight on the horse in desert but still, it could've been cut. She desperately wanted to retrieve her supposed precious comb yet it never explained why it was precious, the comb actually was just a plot device for her romance with Lo.
Jen's fight with Shu-Lien was quite pleasant in my eyes but I hated how it went though, surely I saw that both had comparable skills, but Jen had more advantage with that legendary sword (wtf when it could sliced the heavy weapons Shu-Lien used), Jen said to her when she blamed the weapon for her lost (indicated that Jen was superior than Shu-Lien) yet their very first fight when Jen stole the sword (both unarmed) told the otherwise. I half-expected that Jen would accidentally killed Shu-Lien with that sword to the horror, I'm so glad when Mu-Bai knocked that sword out and threw it, as skillful as Jen was, she wasn't worthy yet to wield that sword. So many random fight scenes for Jen being awesome with no relation to the plot, only to show how spoiled and arrogant she was.
None of the characters got proper development, Shu-Lien and Mu-Bai got lesser scenes than Jen, their past love story was barely mentioned. Almost forgot about Jade Fox, the supposedly main villain here became only an extra character, her lost and demise felt like a joke. Only appeared briefly in many unimportant scenes, her fight with the Police Inspector Tsai and his daughter May (since both father and daughter held revenge against her for killing his wife) resulted in May lost both her parents in the hand of Jade Fox, this had promising premise to further the plot but got abandoned for the sake of beautiful Jen. Mu-Bai's revenge on Jade Fox for murdered his master, got ditched for the sake of paying attention to Jen. I wished May and Mu-Bai would unite to defeat Jade Fox (as they had similar motives) and May became Mu-Bai's disciple instead of Jen but everything was about Jen here, I would be okay if the story itself nice and Jen's character got proper development, but not. Also, a flashback of Jade Fox killing Mu-Bai's master with Mu-Bai mourned for his master would be much more worthy than Jen-Lo's lovey dovey flashback.
Mu-Bai's death too, should be very sad and moving, but his lack of scenes, importance and development hardly made me feel it, though I feel sorry for Shu-Lien, losing her loved one (after losing her fiancee years ago). I'm happy when Shu-Lien pointed the sword at Jen's neck, it seems like she wanted to blame Jen for it (and so do I) but in the end she forgave her because despite everything, Jen was her beloved "sister." I expected Shu-Lien to commit suicide, to follow Mu-Bai and to be reunited with him as she already lost everything, only facepalmed so hard when Jen was the one who choose to commit suicide despite she already reunited and could be live happily together with Lo.
As beautiful as the fights and the sceneries were, storyline/plot is still the most important and core element in every movies, and since the plot here is weak and failed miserably, I think that it's enough to watch this once, this movie is the kind that I hardly want to watch for second time, though I would like to give it a try for the sequel later.