visually stunning piece of art

Rating: 7/10 (19 January 2005)

This movie, contrary to many Hollywood movies, focuses as much on the visual style as it does on the story behind the beauty, perhaps even too much so.
I was completely impressed and blown away by the changes of color, the amazing backdrops (unlike some current Hollywood movies where everything is left to CGI) and the sets used, the acting of everyone involved is excellent and the action sequences are very well played out with a lot of detail given to minor things in those scenes even when they're likely to pass unseen.
It's irresistible to compare this movie to crouching tiger, hidden dragon, but the fact is that they're pretty much in different genres, crouching tiger is a pure action fantasy that follows a linear plot. Hero resides more in the realm of artistic and independent films, using a less conventional or linear script mixed in with visual cues and metaphors. While I do love the movie and would give it a 7.5 or 8 out of 10, the plot itself plays against it as much as it helps it, I found myself falling asleep while I lay in bed watching it, probably because the movie revisits the same place and story over and over again with different twists to change the tempo. I believe that the plot would have made a better book than it did a film, but then again, and I can't seem to stop mentioning it, the use of such stunning color contrasts and backdrops would be lost to a reader. For the record, I have fallen asleep to other great but slow moving films in the past.
This movie is a must watch, just don't rent or buy it expecting an action movie because that's not what it's about.