A good film but a bit too worthy and lacking in pure entertaining value as it grasp exceeds it's reach, certainly not as good as the hype would have you believe

Rating: Null/10 (31 May 2004)

For over a decade the King of Qin has lived in fear of assassination from a trio of powerful warriors in the unconquered regions. This time has come to an end with the arrival of Nameless, a middle-ranking official in his kingdom, who brings news that he has defeated them all. As Nameless claims his rewards in the presence of the King he relates his story of how he defeated the assassin Sky and used the love between Broken Sword and Flying Snow to defeat them. However the King questions some of the things that he is being told.
It is pretty much impossible at the minute to get a balanced review of this film  there are a handful on this site and I hope that this will be another one (but with this film riding high on the top 250 I imagine I will be slated for not drooling over it!). This film seems to suffer from hype for two reasons. Firstly this is a foreign film and many viewers seem to be forgiving of a subtitled film than they would if the same film was a Hollywood blockbuster (I am guilty of this at times too). Secondly, there seems to be plenty of fan-boy fighting over this movie. For example you're not a real fan unless you've seen the 'blah' version and boasting of how early viewers had seen it  I dread when it is released officially and we'll have fighting over how you need to have seen the region whatever DVD to be a real fan! Sigh! Anyway, I am a fan of martial arts and I eventually decided that I could not wait till late 2004 before I saw a film with Li, Yen and Ziyi all together.
I'm sure I will be told that I didn't see the 'right' version of the film, but I can only review what I had and not some wondrous director's cut or whatever. Anyway. Let me say that I thought the film looked great. The cinematography is impressive with use of locations, colours and good (albeit it obvious) use of CGI to add spice to some scenes. The fights themselves are very well done and, again, look impressive but, and here's the crux of my problem, they really aren't what you'd call entertaining. In fact the whole film for me lacked entertainment value because you could feel that it was trying so very hard to be a big impressive grown-up film that is oh-so-worthy. The plot starts well and is interesting but, instead of twisting to become more interesting and involving, it actually twists to become increasingly dull and 'worthy'  again sucking a lot of the life out of the film as it attempts to be important.
The film has a message and it labours it. The message seems to be interrupted in several ways and there is a certain amount of anti-war message in there, but this is not the main thrust. No, the main thrust is about the importance of the many over the rights of the individual  it is a rather disturbing message and it left me cold no matter how much false sentiment was put into it by honourable deaths and sentimental music. It delivers it's message to the detriment of the plot and further weakens the ease with which one would get involved in the film. The lack of characters is also a big problem as it is hard to find an entry point  I mistakenly used the mystery behind Nameless' story as my way in only to find myself led down to a dead end. This is not to say that the film is rubbish, for it most certainly is not but it is far from the perfect film many would claim it to be. The main problem comes from it's aim to be 'worthy'. The action scenes are not really enjoyable because they are all very solemn; the plot's mystery element is lost in the rush to deliver a worthy message type denouncement typical of a film stretching to obtain some sort of artistic value and the actual substance of the film is really rather dull and uninvolving and, trust me, as someone who has been excited about this film for a while, this is hard for me to say.
In terms of performances I will say that all the cast are very talented and natural when it comes to the martial arts side of the film. They make the wire work look a lot more artistic and acceptable than many Hollywood stars do (who often look like they are being pulled in very unnatural ways), however I'm not a massive fan of fight scenes built 100% around flying, floating and levitating. I have already said that the fight scenes lack excitement and an awe factor but they are still impressive and worth seeing  it's just a shame that I saw unmoved by such talent. In terms of actual acting the film suffers from the cast being mostly stifled by values of honour and sacrifice  ie they are not real people and suffer from lack of character. Li is not a great actor but he does what his character requires and does it well; he is really more about his other skills. Yen was a letdown with very little to do outside of his one early scene  I like him a lot and wanted more of a performance, although it was some consolation that his movement was impressive. Cheung is a fine actress but she is rather stale here I thought. I could see she was trying to bring a lot out with small gestures but the film asks her to be impassive and that's pretty much what she does. Ziyi has no character but at least she has plenty of raw emotion  something the film desperately needed. Chen is good simply because he is not bound by the 'worthiness' that affects the rest of the cast. Standout for me was Tony Leung, an actor I always have time for. He is able to bring a lot out of his character and he managed to involve me where the others didn't really.
Visually the film is a feast  the landscapes, the effects, the fights, the colours, the movement, the costumes, the sets, the extras  they all look great and contribute to an impressive feeling film. It is just a shame that it kept stretching for something else that it never reached. It wants so desperately to be worthy and respected that you can hear it say 'look at me, look at me  I'm so much more than a martial arts film' in almost every scene! I don't wish to sound harsh but it is this aspiration to worthiness that really damages how involving and enjoyable it is (and I don't mean I just wanted fighting and nothing else  I can enjoy the most sombre of films, if it gets everything right).
Overall I found this to be surprisingly plodding and to have tried too hard to reach a status that it never gets to. It looks fantastic and some may be taken in by this feast for the eyes combined with 'worthy' aspects and an emotional score, but I needed more substance and a more assured delivery. It is a good film no doubt, but it's flaws are obvious and I feel sorry for QT's minions hoping for this to be Kill Bill 3 only to find it to be rather dull (although I imagine they'll hype it regardless!). See it for what it is  a beautiful film with great choreography and cinematography but sadly not the plot, audience-involvement, characters or performances to really do the visuals justice. Good but no more than that.