Beautifully filmed with an interesting historical theme, yet...

Rating: 6/10 (10 January 2006)

Having just watched this film for the first time (although it was released some time ago), my reaction is not quite as gushing in praise as other reviews, in spite of many impressive elements. Jet Li is a charismatic presence who possesses some of the most amazing martial arts skills to be seen anywhere. He's turned out some very entertaining films, from his early Chinese productions ('Once Upon a Time in China', parts 1-3, 'Fist of Legend') to his more mainstream Hollywood films ('The One', 'Romeo Must Die', etc.). It was, then, with anticipation that I put the DVD of 'Hero' in, set audio option for 'Mandarin DTS', with English subtitles, and hit the 'play' button. The movie began solidly, telling the tale of the Nameless warrior recounting to the Emperor (through flashbacks) his battles with three skilled assassins (see other reviews for more detail of plot). But as the film progressed, I became increasingly let down. But first, the positive aspects: the story line, polemics included, was an interesting philosophical exercise, well analyzed by other reviewers. The photography was, without question, beautiful. The use of certain dominant color schemes with each of Nameless's battle scenes was wonderful to behold, and added a rich emotionalism to the action. And, to be sure, there were some impressive swordplay and fighting scenes. The problem I had with the film was two-fold: first, and of less import, was that some of the many scenes between two of the assassins (Broken Sword and Flying Snow) dragged on too long, with too much contrived emotion between the two. But most negatively for me was the excessive use of 'wire fu' throughout. For this film fan, to see people ignoring the law of gravity and flying around like Peter Pan, soaring over tree tops, walking on water (literally) and controlling nature by creating windstorms, etc. with the wave of a sword leaves me cold. Try as I might, I cannot take any movie seriously that employs such ridiculous imagery. I don't mind trick camera work, a little CGI and other film tricks to make fight scenes exciting, but this nonsense (as was the case in 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon') just causes me to shake my head and lose interest. I realize others will strongly disagree, and consider this film to be among Jet Li's finest. While, as mentioned, I enjoyed his character, the lavish photography and the philosophical elements dealt with, the cartoonish wire-fu fight scenes (and there were many) almost ruined it for me. While I've not seen all of Jet Li's films, among the several I have seen, I rank 'Fist of Legend' and 'Kiss of the Dragon' his best. To be honest, even some of his lesser films ('Romeo Must Die', 'The Enforcer') were more realistic and, consequently, more enjoyable than this gorgeous but flawed film. I give it a score of 6 out of 10.