The prettiest piece of propaganda I've seen yet!

Rating: 3/10 (2 September 2004)

(SPOILERS, BEWARE)
3/10. It only made it to that because it's really a stunning film, in terms of beauty and martial arts choreography. I saw this film as "Hero" in 2004 in the U.S. release.
I remember this film being covered on a public radio program as being looked upon VERY kindly by the Chinese government for its exhortation to submit to the benevolent dictator who can unify "our land." I was interested at the time, more for politics than anything else. But now that I've seen the film, I have plenty of reasons for calling it a bad movie on its own.
Up until the last 30 minutes or so, I'd give the film a 7-8/10. Gorgeous scenery, clever but campy retellings of the same story, and some really awesome fight choreography all made me expect a lot from the end... and then it hit.
I considered it a jarring switch in plot direction and intent, and frankly, motivated by attempts to "quell" the questioning populace under an undemocratic dictatorship.
Broken Sword's sudden realization just prior to killing the king of Qin rang utterly hollow, and completely at odds with the development of his character up to that point in the movie. Studying calligraphy taught him to submit to injustice? At this point, the propaganda was way too thick, and I found myself dreading the rest of the movie. Flying Snow changed from an impassioned and self-sacrificing fighter for her people to an unthinking rebel with a desire only for bloodshed. Nameless followed the path of Broken Sword, and found peace in a pseudo-Buddhist self-annihilation represented by his body's outlined emptiness among on a wall of arrows. Very clever propaganda... individuals empty of desire (or political beliefs) are happy among a barbaric world (represented by the arrows sticking into the wall).
Sorry, the "round peg" of the first 75% of the movie make the last 25% an unwelcome and forced tribute to George Orwell.