Fresh and Exciting

Brilliant and touching

An action-packed slog

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I am American, but I know a little Chinese history. I think you could know nothing of Chinese history and this movie is spectacular. The acting, the cinematography, the plot. I don't too much like kung-fu movies, this is not that, this is drama, and action, and just unbelievable too me. I am now going to watch red cliff and any other Chinese movie about the dynasties. If Chinese keep making good movies like this American action movies will pale in comparison and only simpleminded people will enjoy all those cliché one liners and everybody lives fairy tale endings. So if you are looking for empty cliché Hollywood type acting like mainstream Hollywood this is not for you. If you understand and appreciate movies like apocalypse now for their acting and overall quality, then just throw action like "300" on top of that and a storyline that requires you to actually follow and makes sense then this movie is for you.

It seems as though it is only a half finished project. A first time joint venture- a major motion picture project put together by the Chinese and the Korean production teams, the Chinese took part in pre-production; from writing up the screen play to directing (a Chinese guy who made Jet Li's "Black Mask), acting & filming while the Korean team took care of most of the post production (& funding), the CGI, and scoring.With almost unlimited amount of funding and the pool of world-class production talents in Asia, I cannot help but wonder how an opportunity like this could have gone this wrong. The famous Chinese classic- the three kingdoms - is an epic war story that one could not find its proper match in its scale in any part of the world. The movie deserved more than only a 90 min. duration. Why Why Why did the director and its team decide to cut out anything that resembled a real drama? Who knows. Jhon Woo wanted to give the project a proper attention, so in his upcoming three kingdoms project,'the red cliff' he is devoting 4 hours to tell the story.The action sequences, camera works, set designs, costumes, and props, and even the score, you name it, they were all top notch. But Why? Why no Drama? Why could't the director decide to use another 30 more minutes to supplement the sheer absence of story-telling and the sufficient characterization of each of the major characters ? It would only have made the film 120 minutes, which is still within the main stream block buster length range. Besides I bet that anyone who came to see the movie must have expected something more of a... "brave heart" type of epic story and heart wrenching human drama and understood appreciatively even if the movie went more than 2 hours.What a waste...indeed !!! I am a big fan of Three kingdoms and Any Lau, so i will always love any project that has anything to do with those 2 elements, but this one.... oh... a surprisingly disappointing project, indeed. I gave it a 5 out of ten, because as I mentioned, the picture is only a half-finished and at least that half was pretty good.

Well, This is the first time that I came here. Actually, it is because of this movie made me come here! Because he is a Korean Director, I can bear and forgive his unknowns about the real and reasonable history of Three Kingdoms of Ancient China. But there is something I can't bear, and I am sure nobody had known Ancient China can bear.The costumes(or Amor), I am sure they are all Japannese Style! I am not want to cause any racism arguments, but it is Chinese History, what's hell you give the worries Japannese Amors? Can I shoot a movie about Civil War of US but give them Ancient European Amors? And also there are many many unreasonable details about the story. Our Forums have discussed how bad and how stupid about this story~~~~Well, I know most of u guys can't understand what I am saying. Overall, it is not a good story, but it may be a good WAR FILM which made people excited.

Zhao Zhilong, a legend might not want to spend his hard earned money on this movie about his life. Really, i think this movie doesn't quite live it up to the hype that it should be, and if you had watched "The Warlords" before this one, you'll really be disappointed with the whole setup of plot and action.I give credit, the costumes are quite decently well done, the only complain i have is that the soldiers, commanders and Maggie Q's Cao Ying are too Japanese armoured. Yes, their armour reminds me abit of those armour worn by soldiers, samurais during the warring period. I wouldn't have minded if both Shu and Wei had the same armour but different color in this case. I give credit also for the work done for Andy Lau when he appeared as an aged Zhilong, the make up really bring out the age and favour when you see the aged Zhilong.Other than that, the plot strings itself quite weakly with some narration to string the viewers from one event to another. Fact is, it almost felt like those cut scenes in video games, where they want to bring you right into the action ... and that's how it felt at some points of the movie ... I just felt that it could be far better executed.The action scenes are nothing much to write home too. Like i said before, if you had watched "The Warlords", you'll find it a yawn. I'm not implying i want a lot of violence and gore, but there wasn't much intensity in the fights, from the soldier to soldier clashing up to duels between characters, i just feel a lack of intensity in most of the battle scenes.You will get to see some additional 3 Kingdom characters appearing in this movie, and I really think some of the casting of characters is quite wrong. The 2 big disappointment for me was how Guan Yu looked liked (way too short!) and the casting for Guan Xi.All in all, i wouldn't catch this movie again honestly, wouldn't recommend it. To end off in a positive note, i do have to say that Andy Lau is able to play a decent Zhao Zhilong, just felt bad the movie doesn't really help to showcase his role!