Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Not bad acting from individual members of the cast. Choreography wasn't terrible, with some scenes that looked pretty decent, especially from the leads. Folks not familiar with the original anime series will think the writing is clumsy, but possibly acceptable. Folks familiar with the story canon will probably not like this movie at all. I won't spoil it for you if you want to watch. (I had to see it for myself to know for sure) Again, no spoilers, but the ending sucked mightily. If you're hanging on for dear life with your hand on the DVR delete button, hoping to be saved by the ending, don't bother. There are plenty of choices in the series that follow canon without insulting your intelligence.

I just watched it for thousandth time & I will watch this movie a million more times in the future. A totally awesome movie that was underrated when it came out & did not deserve to be because it is a masterpiece of movie greatness. If you like vampires, action, beautiful HD scenery & the most of all that I love this movie for & that is the marvelous sword play. I bought this movie & put it in my movie collection because it deserves to be there. This movie reminds me of when me & my best friend use to come home from school & watch those super cool karate movies of yesterday with cool crazy sleek sword play action, the ones where the the whole females dress is used as a weapon, paper can be thrown to decapitate an opponent, they highly skilled fighters can fly disappear & or jump from building to building with no problem. This movie is a rare diamond that was never found by many people, but us that love great movies know how to dig to find the finest & this movie is one of the finest & earned the rightful spot in my movie collection, so if you like karate movies, great sword play & action & great HD scenery, then go see this movie because it is a wonderful breathe of fresh air & I hope they make other of this series because if so, I will be there to watch & purchase anything that they bring out.

I will admit that there are some mindless action movies that I simply enjoyed watching and not care of the flaws that it carries. However, with movies like this, the negative really stands out and it really caused me to dislike this film more and more as the story progresses. I will admit that I haven't seen any of the original movie and the anime that this was based off of, but judging the movie as a whole, this movie simply sucked!One of the main problems I had with the film was the story itself. Not only was in convoluted, but it felt extremely rushed to where I couldn't follow what was going on. The film took no sign of time and dedication to make any sort of sense toward what was going on, explaining character motives and having a sense of story that the audience can somehow enjoy. An example is when Saya is talking about her past and explaining what happened to her. During that scene, she introduces a person she loved, but was simply written out of that flashback without explaining why. Nothing is ever explained in this movie and I was left with only questions as the movie ended way too abruptly.This leads to my other concern: characters. All of the characters were just flat and the film didn't do anything to add any sort of depth, characteristics or information about them. Many characters are introduced and they come and go like candy. There is a secret organization that Saya works for that was not explained. A character dies in a movie that Saya had a strong relationship with and yet you didn't know anything about him or why Saya was enraged with his death. There are hints of many of these throughout the film to where I didn't even care for any of the characters.The acting is as expected bad and filled with actors overacting. The main actress was okay in the film and was the only one who didn't suck. Everyone else was bad and at times looked like they didn't even want to be on the set. One thing that did bother me was Koyuki, the actress who portrayed as Kogen. I can say in confidence that her voice was absolutely dubbed since there is no way in high heaven that she was able to speak perfect English like that! I maybe wrong, but after watching some of her performance on Japanese TV and movies, her voice didn't sound anywhere near to her voice in this movie. The action itself was simply unentertaining to watch. All of the scenes were choppy to the point where I couldn't tell who was cutting whom. The CG effects on the blood were extremely cheap, making the blood splatter on "The Expendables" series to be more realistic. There is a huge fighting sequence with Saya and a horde of monsters that was unentertaining to watch and failed to bring any sort of thrill/excitement. These scenes mainly lacked any sort of excitement to the point where I unintentionally laughed. The only positive thing I can say about the action and with the film itself was that the main actress did her own stunts and have to give her credit for that. One last thing I have to bring up that the CGI on these creatures were definite discounts of the vampires from "From Dusk Till Dawn." The make up on these creatures was outright cheap and the look of their full-on transformation was utterly hilarious to look at. Personally, this film is filled with plenty of unintentional laughs; from how they depicted Japan, making it look like Chinatown, silly moments and a possible dubbed voice for Koyuki. This movie was just not my taste and another example of a film adaptation of an anime gone wrong.

I have never seen the anime series, if it is a series or an animated film. I remember seeing the trailer for this movie a while ago, thinking 'wow that looks so cool, gotta see it!'. I have a soft spot for Asian style martial arts with all the flying around Crouching Tiger style as it brings a fantasy into reality on the screen.This movie is simply entertainment face value. The main heroine, I felt gave a decent performance as Saya who brings a beauty and one of those kick ass don't mess with me be warned type of charisma to the character. Her English is decent. The additional character of Alice is more of an annoyance and is simply there to add that whole emotional support in helping Saya be 'more human' and also is there to act as the damsel in distress.The special effects - well sometimes they were alright and sometimes it was a bit laughable. There is too much style used in this movie, and too many cuts, slow mo's that it felt very artificial; though I guess for a film like this it goes for style over substance.The final demon, Onigen, Saya's arch nemesis, is beautiful, played by Japanese actress Koyuki, but her English was a bit difficult to hear sometimes, and I had to find myself paying extra attention to what her threats actually were which reduced the credibility of her as a villain. The climatic fight scene or confrontation felt a bit rushed, which was disappointing considering that scene was really visually eye popping.I should probably watch it again and just enjoy the ride, but that feeling that there could have been a lot more done still resides.