A Cartoon

Rating: 6/10 (10 September 2004)

'Hero' was visually stunning. The colors and cinematography were excellent but I have a bit of a problem with the story. It was the same basic story of all martial arts movies. I'm going to kill you because you killed somebody and I have to avenge the killing so I have to fight you. Though each segment of the movie was in a different color the plot within each segment was basically the same, two people fighting. The segment continued until the stoic fighter beat the other fighter. I found it somewhat boring.
The story was simplistic and the fighting, though maybe highly skilled, repetitious. The wire fighting scenes were ridiculous. I find them to be more Stan Lee than Bruce Lee. I think comparisons to Kurosawa misleading since Kurosawa had much deeper stories and characters. This movie is a cartoon. It is a nice visual treat and in that sense it is worth seeing.