Inspired To Warn Others About This Film

Rating: 5/10 (15 December 2011)

I watched this movie in Beijing on the 15th (day before the official release). I have never written a negative review of a film, but this movie inspires me to do so.
There is never a moment in this movie that will bring tears to your eyes. There is no romance except one extremely brief non-nude pseudo-sex scene with Christian Bale that maybe lasted 1 minute (could be a Disney scene almost). The character interaction consists of one liners with a quirky but entertaining performance by Christian Bale. Part of the reason why this movie fails is that there is no other stars in this film. There is Christian Bale and then there are 12 prostitutes taking refuge in the church, 12 young innocent choir girls and 1 boy. Then there are the visitors to the church in the form of Chinese or Japanese soldiers. That's the entire movie. (not a spoiler is it?)
The 90% of the movie takes place inside a Catholic church, making this more similar to a play, in my opinion, then a movie. The other 10% of the movie is action scenes on the war torn streets of Nanking.
This movie tries to be a grand spectacle Oscar-worthy effort, but fails on all fronts. The direction and cinematography is very sub-par. Action scenes do not flow; there are almost no establishing shots. Character development is non-existent in that the film does not give you reason to care about the characters in this film. Yes there are rape scenes with no nudity that depict girls that we are not given an opportunity to become emotionally attached to. Christian Bale's performance was about the only watchable aspect to this movie, but even that was no where near the caliber of The Dark Night (which shows how much a director can bring out the best or worst in an actor).
In conclusion, this is a movie that tries to be something that will create emotion in the audience, which you can't do with comic-book movie style shallow character development. Action scenes are not memorable. Honestly, this has to be the worst movie I've seen Christian Bale appear in. The movie did not provoke any emotion in me or my Chinese companion. The first thing she told me when the movie ended that the movie is "not good". I agree with her.