trying to hard and failing

Rating: 3/10 (27 February 2006)

I usually don't write reviews, but on this one I felt the need to do so, because too many people seem to be misguided by this movie. First of all I find the message, that has been transported to the audience, all wrapped up in beautiful, different colored cloth, absolutely unswallowable. Open your eyes, this movie is so much propaganda it hurts. It clearly could be seen as a glorification and justification for fascistic regimes. I'm not the first to recognize, so if you stay focused and try to filter the ever so thin plot, you should actually get it. Understanding this and then seeing the reference in storytelling to great Kurosawa (Rashomon) made me very uncomfortable. Regarding the acting I have to say that it is below par. They all want this to be epic and fail on every level to achieve it. So you get these 'pregnant with meaning' looks, that go on for ever while the violin fiddles in the back. 3/4 of the flick is shot in slow mo to give it pathos, but after a while it just feels like they are trying to hard and they're just using the formula the wrong way. In the end these to the hilt extended scenes got me really annoyed, because with hardly no plot existent, it felt just ragged. Next I want to comment on the often praised style and sheer beauty of the picture. Yes, they did pick breathtaking locations and enhanced picture and sound and rounded it up with over the top martial arts (fighters flying over water - not my kind of pie), but, like I said, the excessive usage of slow motion and the bad acting often got me laughing, but seeing what message is transported through "hero" the laughs died on my lips.