Bottomline: Worst movie of the year.
First of all, if you've seen the previews of this movie, they are VERY misleading, and that in itself is an understatement. They would have you believe that this is a high-flying martial arts movie, when it's actually not. They do more sitting down and discussing their feelings than in Steel Magnolias.
Remember that scene in the comercial where they fire off a huge wave of arrows, they show a close up of Jet Li's hand going for his sword, and then show all the arrows in the wall but a body shaped where the arrows supposedly missed because he used his 1337 martial arts skill to fend them off? Well, when they really did fire those arrows at him, it was at his execution, he had no sword and he died.
The movie basically goes like this: Theres this king who wants to unite all of the lands under one power. They make you think the King is evil for about the first 45 minutes of the movie by making you think he wants to unite all of the lands because he's an evil tyrant who wants to conquer everything. But you later find out that he only wants to unite the lands under one power because it would bring about peace.
Ok, so the main characters are three assassins who are out to kill the king, and Jet Li is supposed to be the great warrior who killed the assassins and stopped them from killing the king, thus allowing the King to conquer all of the other lands, have them under one power and create peace for all. (Or this is what they have you believe in the previews)
The plot twist is that Jet Li was a friend of one of the assassins. He then conspires with the assassins to make it look like he(Jet Li) killed them (assassins). You see, the reward for killing one of the three assassins is being allowed to drink within a certain distance of the king; 10 paces for each kill. As it turns out, while the King was on his quest to unite the lands, he slaughtered Jet Li's family while attacking one of the kingdoms. So Nameless(as jet li is called in the movie), is really out to kill the king.
The whole movie takes place with Jet Li inside of the palace telling the king how he dispatched each assassin. After he finishes each tale, the king lets him move 10 paces closer to him. When he finishes the last tale, he's within 10 paces of the king. The king then informs Nameless that he knows that he was friends with the assassins and that he didn't really kill them, but just made it look like he did.
So then the King thinks Nameless is there to kill him, but what the king doesn't know is that before Nameless left on his mission to kill the King, Broken Sword (one of the assassin's names, I'm not making this up here) backs out on the plan and asked Nameless not to kill the King. Nameless tells the king that Broken Sword understands what the King is trying to do fully and that he really means to bring peace. The King is touched by this because Broken Sword was his most feared enemy and he finds the revelation that Broken Sword is the only one who understands him, to be very shocking.
Then the king gives Nameless a sword (because his guards wouldn't let him into the palace with a weapon) and turns his back. He figures that if Broken Sword understands, then Nameless would understand too. Nameless doesn't kill the king but just says some touchy feely crap like.. "Remember all those who gave their life for peace.", turns and walks away. This is the scene where he's on the steps surrounded by like 1,000 guards. The king's council say that an example must be shown and that he must execute Nameless, the King then reluctantly gives the order and Nameless gets killed in the fashion I told you above.
Then in the last scene of the movie, Flying Snow (the third assassin, and also Broken Sword's lover), is really pissed that Nameless didn't kill the king when he could of. She blames Broken Sword for telling him not to kill the King. They start fighting. Long story short, Broken Sword drops his sword at the last moment and Flying Snow fatally wounds him. She asks why he didn't defend the attack and he says something like "So you would believe." then dies. She screams, cries, then kills herself. It's like freaking Hamlet all over again.
Anyway, if you ask me, there is a serious government undertone to this movie... something like.. "If your country's government tries to counquer the entire world, don't go against them because it will eventually bring about eternal peace!".
This movie is visually stunning at times if you enjoyed walking on water, flying through trees fight scenes that happened in Crouch Tiger Hidden Dragon. They also overuse the whole "shit blowing in the wind" effect. I mean, everything in his movie is blowing in the wind. All of the character'ss hair (every person in this movie has long hair), all of the character's robes (they all wear flowing robes), leaves and shit, water and shit, basically a lot of shit.
In my opinion, The Five Deadly Venoms still reigns supreme, so just buy that instead of going to see this movie.
First of all, if you've seen the previews of this movie, they are VERY misleading, and that in itself is an understatement. They would have you believe that this is a high-flying martial arts movie, when it's actually not. They do more sitting down and discussing their feelings than in Steel Magnolias.
Remember that scene in the comercial where they fire off a huge wave of arrows, they show a close up of Jet Li's hand going for his sword, and then show all the arrows in the wall but a body shaped where the arrows supposedly missed because he used his 1337 martial arts skill to fend them off? Well, when they really did fire those arrows at him, it was at his execution, he had no sword and he died.
The movie basically goes like this: Theres this king who wants to unite all of the lands under one power. They make you think the King is evil for about the first 45 minutes of the movie by making you think he wants to unite all of the lands because he's an evil tyrant who wants to conquer everything. But you later find out that he only wants to unite the lands under one power because it would bring about peace.
Ok, so the main characters are three assassins who are out to kill the king, and Jet Li is supposed to be the great warrior who killed the assassins and stopped them from killing the king, thus allowing the King to conquer all of the other lands, have them under one power and create peace for all. (Or this is what they have you believe in the previews)
The plot twist is that Jet Li was a friend of one of the assassins. He then conspires with the assassins to make it look like he(Jet Li) killed them (assassins). You see, the reward for killing one of the three assassins is being allowed to drink within a certain distance of the king; 10 paces for each kill. As it turns out, while the King was on his quest to unite the lands, he slaughtered Jet Li's family while attacking one of the kingdoms. So Nameless(as jet li is called in the movie), is really out to kill the king.
The whole movie takes place with Jet Li inside of the palace telling the king how he dispatched each assassin. After he finishes each tale, the king lets him move 10 paces closer to him. When he finishes the last tale, he's within 10 paces of the king. The king then informs Nameless that he knows that he was friends with the assassins and that he didn't really kill them, but just made it look like he did.
So then the King thinks Nameless is there to kill him, but what the king doesn't know is that before Nameless left on his mission to kill the King, Broken Sword (one of the assassin's names, I'm not making this up here) backs out on the plan and asked Nameless not to kill the King. Nameless tells the king that Broken Sword understands what the King is trying to do fully and that he really means to bring peace. The King is touched by this because Broken Sword was his most feared enemy and he finds the revelation that Broken Sword is the only one who understands him, to be very shocking.
Then the king gives Nameless a sword (because his guards wouldn't let him into the palace with a weapon) and turns his back. He figures that if Broken Sword understands, then Nameless would understand too. Nameless doesn't kill the king but just says some touchy feely crap like.. "Remember all those who gave their life for peace.", turns and walks away. This is the scene where he's on the steps surrounded by like 1,000 guards. The king's council say that an example must be shown and that he must execute Nameless, the King then reluctantly gives the order and Nameless gets killed in the fashion I told you above.
Then in the last scene of the movie, Flying Snow (the third assassin, and also Broken Sword's lover), is really pissed that Nameless didn't kill the king when he could of. She blames Broken Sword for telling him not to kill the King. They start fighting. Long story short, Broken Sword drops his sword at the last moment and Flying Snow fatally wounds him. She asks why he didn't defend the attack and he says something like "So you would believe." then dies. She screams, cries, then kills herself. It's like freaking Hamlet all over again.
Anyway, if you ask me, there is a serious government undertone to this movie... something like.. "If your country's government tries to counquer the entire world, don't go against them because it will eventually bring about eternal peace!".
This movie is visually stunning at times if you enjoyed walking on water, flying through trees fight scenes that happened in Crouch Tiger Hidden Dragon. They also overuse the whole "shit blowing in the wind" effect. I mean, everything in his movie is blowing in the wind. All of the character'ss hair (every person in this movie has long hair), all of the character's robes (they all wear flowing robes), leaves and shit, water and shit, basically a lot of shit.
In my opinion, The Five Deadly Venoms still reigns supreme, so just buy that instead of going to see this movie.
