Scanialara
You won't be disappointed!
StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Bluebell Alcock
Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
SnoopyStyle
It's the start of the 8th century. The Chinese Tang dynasty is battling the Turk for the silk road occupied by Buddhist kingdoms. Lieutenant Li tries to release Turk women and children when he's ordered to execute them. He's forced to mutiny and escape. Later, the Tang emperor sends Sir Lai Xi to kill Li who is labeled as 'the butcher'. Lai Xi is Japanese forced to live in the Tang court since age 13. He is promised a passage home after killing Li. The two men fight but join forces to defend a Buddhist caravan. The caravan is carrying a powerful relic and the Turks are after it for control of the local Buddhist tribes. Lord Khan recruits ruthless local warlord Master An who is promised the Khan's daughter.This has good locations of the vast desert landscapes and local settings. The story is relatively simple but a little disjointed. The battles are part-realistic and part-unreal kung fu. There's some good action but also some confused action. This is a watchable action adventure with some good but also some deficiencies.
tuexss
Wow, such a waste of time. I had to stop in the middle. The actors performed just bad. The characters introduction was a total joke. The costumes looked so fake. There's historical errors in the props. The sound effects weren't convincing. The plot didn't capture me at all. The CGI looked totally laughable. And the soundtrack felt like a copy of Titanic. The English overdub is a total catastrophe.One of the most laughable scene is the sandstorm. They are in the desert, suddenly a huge CGI sandstorm appears out of nowhere. Everybody runs in a circle for 10 seconds. Next cut everything disappeared and a guy is yelling for the others. I've seen high school kids with better dramaturgic talent than what I've seen in this movie.I did like the performance of the many animals in the movie. And the scenery was very watchable. But the rest was getting in the way of enjoying, so only 2 stars.
sapphire_dragon-1
Reading all the reviews they covered most of the relevant points. The thing about this film it is not a kung fu movie, it's not about demonstrating the great skills of kung fu, so I think it is a bit unfair to compare it to the movie Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or House Of Flying Daggers. And the characters are not meant to be martial artists but swordsman, which is a totally different skill set. I would compare this more to road movies, because it is more of a road movie, (where characters physical moving through an environment is symbolic of the character's inner change.) If your looking for a movie with amazing battle scenes this is not it. It's a character driven movie, about ethical and moral dilemmas, loyalty and honour and the bonds of brotherhood. For me what blew me out of the water was the acting, it's been a long time since I've seen demeanor acting like that. I don't know if it was perfect casting or perfect directing but the main actors looked completely involved in their character, in the way they moved , the way they walked even just sitting in a chair you'd think that is how that character would sit in the chair. They got all the nuances right never once you thought that's the actor coming through. Been a long time since I've seen acting that particular. My only real gripe, is if you are going to get a Japanese actor to play the Japanese character, couldn't you get Turks to play Turks? Or at least someone more passable for Turkish because Chinese looks nothing like Turkish.
dromasca
How should we call this genre? Chinese film-makers take their rich history and repack it into action movies very much shoot in accordance to the Hollywood action and western movies conventions. If the Clint Eastwood movies of the 6os were spaghetti westerns, these should be noodles westerns, right? The result is quite entertaining, I confess. As a warning, 'Warrior of Heaven and Earth' do not get to the level of 'Tigers' or 'Hero' from a story budding, fights choreography or cinematography. It's what is called in American cinema slang a B movie, but not a bad one. Acting is good, there are good moments of cinema, and I actually enjoyed the fact that the fights avoided this times the physically impossible choreography in some other movies - no jump records broken in this one, no walking on the ceilings and walls, sorry! The less successful parts in Ping He's film are related to some cheap low-budget effects, discontinuities in the story and a tendency to solve conflicts through super-natural effects which are quite in contrast to the down-to-earth tone of the rest of the story. But this may be where the Ewnglish title comes from - the Earth action, and the Heaven dramatic solutions.Worth watching, although not the best in his category. 6 out of 10 on my personal scale.