Beautiful Rip-off

Rating: 7/10 (10 September 2004)

After highly anticipating this movie's release, I must say that I was a little disappointed. I can't quite pinpoint what it is about this movie I didn't like, but something was...missing. It is a really well-made movie, from the
cinematography to the set design and even costuming. They were all nothing
short of awesome. But where "Hero" went wrong was it's originality. I know it's been said before, but it was EXACTLY like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
Not because it's ancient China or a beautiful "kung-fu" epic, but almost
everything that made CTHD great was spliced right into "Hero." From the music to the love story to the visual elements and fighting styles, it has the same feeling, mood, and characters that CTHD did (but without the heart and
development). I enjoyed Jet Li immensely and like I said, it's very well done and visually beautiful, but too little originality and not enough development to be CTHD.