Film Reviews by DE

'Harry Potter meets Lord of the Rings' was my impression of this film and as my mature adult sensibility didn't much care for either of these films it should come as no surprise that it didn't care much for this one. It was just so puerile. I had hoped that it might give me some insight into modern Chinese film-making but no, it was so western in its style. The fact that it was in English didn't help here but worse, much worse was the quality of the dialogue; it was excruciatingly wooden and charmless both in its use of language and delivery. Well, the first twenty minutes were which was as long as i was able to continue watching.

Having watched 'The Life of Pi' before - and which was also directed by Ang Lee - I I hoped this film might carry the same level of elegant meaningfulness. But it was not to be.

And as for people flying through the air over rooftops; better leave that cinematic trope to 'Mary Poppins'. She made it much more believable!

I really enjoyed this film. I thought the story was believable and held me throughout building nicely to a well-anticipated climax. The characters were well contrasted and whilst they seemed to represent obvious 'good' and 'bad' qualities they were also complete enough to provide for an absorbing and thought-provoking interplay. They also appealed well to my natural affections and disaffections as well as to my sense of justice. Billy Bob Thornton was brilliant as the 'retard' Karl. Bearing in mind he also wrote the screenplay and directed the film one can only say it was a real tour de force.