Somewhat hyped..

Rating: 7/10 (16 January 2005)

We would give this movie a 6.5, no more than that. Maybe less.
What did we enjoy? The story, which is beautiful, and *spoilers* roughly, is told in a few different ways.
What didn't we like? A lot of the meaning (for the viewer) here seems to be in developing ideas from similar films such as crouching tiger. While this works for the film fans, we suspect that for people who see "Hero" as a stand-alone project, such meanings will be lost. And in that case, what are we left with? 1. The fighting scenes in this film were exaggerated. 2. The character of the young-woman warrior (Moon) didn't really play any role. Seemed that her presence in the movie was meant to capture some viewers who remembered her from crouching tiger / hidden dragon. As some commented, the sex scene with her did not contribute anything to the film. Neither do her fight scenes. In particular, the one where she fights Flying Snow amongst the falling leaves was ridiculous. This scene seemed bent on infusing emotion into the viewer in a very explicit way  reminded me of Fleetwood Mac's music  just tries too hard to infuse you with emotion. 3. In general, it seemed that all the good motives in crouching tiger were taken to an extreme here  the flying scenes, walking on water scenes etc' simply don't play any important role here.
As far as Jet-Li films go, our favorites are clearly his earlier, non-westernized works  Fist of Legend, Last Hero in China, The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk (Truly amazing film!),