Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

chaos-rampant This probably joins the list of great battle movies on just the scope it was conceived, though not really for what you'll see in this first movie. You actually have an option to watch a condensed version of the two movies (titled Red Cliff) or the two separate ones. If you decide on the latter, the epochal battle takes place in the second installment and here we have the setting up of lavish stage with characters walking in to assume their place in the epic.None of that even remotely interesting as storytelling. It's all filmed from the outside looking into actors on a stage, cleanly separating good from evil, every crucial point mouthed by characters and everything neatly reduced to platitude, nothing embodied or allowed to be inferred as anxious machinations of life; it's opera, something the Chinese know well from their own tradition.And nothing is allowed to breathe in a cinematic way that creates pace and rhythm, allowing each moment to have its own natural resonance dictated by itself, everything forcibly cluttered in pretty much the same way, every frame packed. It's one thing to film war this way, it seems like war would dictate that as its own rhythm, but scenes of dialogue with a cut every two-three seconds?It comes to mirror something else; so, a man of ruthless ambition mobilizing thousands on the field, moving ahead with his scheme to write epochal narrative, no one else allowed any control of their fate. And this is also the filmmaker, exercising control over the cinematic field where he orchestrates thousands to make history in such a way that nothing escapes from that control - you'll notice that almost every shot is a pan, zoom, cut, crane move to what he wants us to see. I haven't felt such overbearing control over my eyes (and put to such daft use) in a long time. People sometimes ask about badly directed movies. This is one.

muons This is basically of the same genre of 70's silly Kung fu movies which were produced by kilos for brainless audience, albeit with an inflated budget and -of course lots and lots of computer animation which will make you puke.The acting is theatrical and too pretentious. They can't even act a still dead person convincingly enough. The plot is paper thin to the level of non-existence. The character development is a bad cartoon job. The war scenes are utterly silly and unrealistic looking more like unedited cuts from cheap video games. Thousands of warships on the river stick out too much as an amateur computer animation. The final straw is the scene about several generals slashing each others' throats while troops look on peacefully on the sidelines... This is beyond ludicrous.The whole project looks less of a history movie based on a true story than a regressive glorification of war which would certainly serve well in 30's Nazi Germany but too primitive if not childish in today's norms.

William Samuel The first word that comes to mind is epic. There is simply no other way to describe the massive scale sweeping narrative of this production. Battle scenes contain hundreds, sometimes even thousands of extras. When the camera tracked over Cao Cao's fleet, I couldn't help but feel impressed. It's one thing to be told that someone has two thousand ships; it's another thing entirely to see every one of them, stretching for miles along a swollen river. Whether it's the number of extras, the exquisitely detailed set pieces, or the lavish costume design, you can tell that no expense was spared at any point.Of course there's more to a film than just production values, there's also the matter of plot and characterization. Fortunately, Red Cliffs delivers here as well. The plot, which follows warlord Cao Cao's invasion of southern China in ancient times, is easy to follow but not at all threadbare. The characters are also fairly well developed, considering the size of the cast.I admit that at first I wasn't sure what to think of the combat sequences. They were certainly quite impressive, but seeing a warrior dodge spear thrusts from half a dozen enemies and then dispatch all of them with a single attack made it hard for me to suspend my disbelief. Then I realized that this is a martial arts film as much as a war movie. When viewed on these terms, the fight scenes were highly enjoyable. I rarely got the feeling that any of the actors' moves owed more to special effects than to their physical abilities, and it was quite refreshing to see them dispense with the One at a Time Attack Rule. The larger battle sequences between armies are also well staged, with the Tortoise Shell Formation sequence being one of most impressive displays of strategy and precision choreography that I've seen in quite a while.This film is hardly perfect. Some parts of the movie, such as the birth of the foal, or the scene in which one of the generals tends to his pigeons didn't seem entirely necessary. I suppose that perhaps these scenes had some greater meaning that Chinese audiences would have grasped, but I can certainly understand how the distributors were able to cut the running time by half for the film's western release.Overall, however, it does a good job of holding the viewer's attention and telling a compelling story. It is a successful blend of historical epic and martial arts film, and should satisfy fans of both.

le_smat_des_smat John Woo directing a movie based on true events? I first hated the idea since his 2002 movie "Windtalkers" was a piece of sh*t, but guess what? This one is great! I was very surprise with this one. John Woo is rising from the ashes of his latests American movies he made (Wintalkers and Paycheck) and give us something bigger and better.The characters where well made and they are all interesting without exception and specially Tony Leung which is one of the best actor (in my opinion) in hong kong and also worked with Woo in the intense and great Hard Boiled in 1992.The story is also well explain for those who don't know a lot about Chinese culture and historical moments and its all building up that intense battle at the end.The action scenes where epic as any John woo film but here it takes a much larger scale with the crazy slow motion that we all love and things blowing up (realisticly of course). My only complain is that here in Canada we only have a 2-3 hour movie and in china, its a 2 part movie. Overall, go see it, its a must see for Every one who loves this kind of film.