This kind of film truly reminds me why I enjoy Asian cinema. This take here...the mix of martial arts and Jackie Chan, Jet Li kind of sword play (typical Chinese which as awesome), mixed cast from various nations to throw in so many nations and trifles in just 2 hours and actually not make it feel rushed nor boring at ANY time whatsoever. Now that is something I find truly impressive and extremely refreshing.
Jackie Chan as this peaceful and helpful man who seeks to create peace and assist others. "Turn foes into friends" as the movie so eloquently states in the end. John Cusack as the Roman General on the run with the young brother of another roman general (adrien Brody who's the bad guy here which he does a wonderful job portraying) Various other people ending up to join the fray of power, greed, jealousy and so much more. It's all great, people! It's great entertainment and it keeps you interested and captivated through each step of the film. It makes you pumped up during the fight sequences which are very well done, effects, costumes and basically the visuals of this are astounding. Its a beautiful and yet raw looking film. Gritty...which really allows you to immersive yourself into this epic...and I stress that word...EPIC film.
I personally see this as a definitive 8 out of 10. Its more than good. Its more than great. It's in my opinion flat out fantastic and most of all so because it has GREAT replay value. Its entertaining, captivating, got great action, ambitious and passionate story, great cast and it is filmed very very well.
Definitely worth a watch AT LEAST once. Wonderful film. I'm very happy I decided to watch this one. There are so many big budget films nowadays that simply are so heavy and dragged out in their story telling and basically you'll watch it once...walk away without air in your lungs not because you're blown away...but because you are literally exhausted just watching the same...old...boring...cliché story.
THIS... strays from all of that! And thus I'm rating it 8. Damn good film, people. Another thing is also you never get the weird feeling that Jackie Chan who's quite the comedy actor is here as the action hero. Quite the contrary he makes it work extremely well. Sure he has some funny scenes and he makes the action super good like you'd expect. But overall...he's doing damn good in this kind of film.
Daniel Lee. Thank you so much for making this film. And thanks to all who helped and participated.
