For anyone who cares...my Storm Rider Clash of Evils review

So I just got done watching it and I have nothing else to do so I thought I'd write a review for it. There may be some slight spoilers.

Anyway, the first thing I'd like to say about the movie was that it was subtitled in English. I was surprised. It was subbed in Chinese and English and I have to say the subs were good. It was like a professional translation. They were that good. I'd give it a 9/10. .5 deducted for one or two hokey translations and another .5 for when the subs ran off the screen. Now, onto the movie.

Now, how did I like the movie? As a SR fan, I guess its ok. For casual moviegoers, its ok as well. From the get-go, the movie opens with Wind and Cloud killing Conquer and then Wind going crazy and fighting Cloud. Unless you're an SR fan, you won't understand until later when a little bit of exposition is given by Wind. To fully enjoy this movie, you need to know the source material. That being said, the movie retains some elements of the source material and strays off into its own path. It's basically an alternate story. Whether or not that's a good thing for you is up to you to decide.

Basic plot is this: Ao Jue was a member of the Sword Worship Villa before it was destroyed by the Emperor. Why? I dunno. But it was. He wants revenge on him by using the Jue Sword, but it was never completed and it needs the blood of the now-extinct Flame Kylin to complete it. The treacherous (and I mean treacherous) bastard Duan Long comes by to tell him that Wind and Cloud both have the blood of the Flame Kylin so Jue sets out to find them.

That's the overall plot. What I see, there are 3 plots. First one is the one I described. Second, after Wind and Cloud kill Conquer, they are both separated. Cloud falls off a cliff and gets amnesia and is rescued by a girl named Ying who has a bunch of brothers and sisters and such and he helps them out. The third plot involves Wind of course. He thinks Cloud is dead and he goes on a drunken tirade of sorts and is taken in by Dream. There's also some sort of plan to kill Wind but I couldn't really follow it. Which is a problem. Many events aren't fully elaborated on which is a shame since there could've been many great directions it could've taken the movie.

I didn't like the fact that there were too many characters and most of them had no use. One that comes to mind is one that is called "Captain C". He seems to be the sheriff of some town whose only purpose was to get beaten and humiliated by Wind and Cloud on separate occasions and then die at the end. Yet he's in the movie for a while. Second was "Kay". There was some hinted romance at the beginning when Jue threw her to the floor and looked like he was about to get it on, but she refused. Its later explained that Jue's dad told her not to get with him because their energies don't mix. I wanted them to elaborate more on that and on Kay in general.

Next was the random appearance of Mud Buddha who should've been dead following the comic continuity. He shows up out of nowhere to lecture Wind and Dream. And as much as it pains me to say this, even Nameless was useless. He's only in two scenes in the movie, one at a river and later at the end. Sure he got to do a good deed at the end, but that could've been handed to someone else. Also Duan Long's girl "Shadow". Why was she following him? Why follow some heartless guy? Did she know?

Shoot, even Ao Jue seemed undeveloped. He seemed to love Kay but that was never explored beyond him trying to get it on with her. I also never understood why he attacked Cloud when Cloud completed the sword for him or why he didn't just ask for a blood sample. Seriously man. [sarcasm]

Which leads to my next complaint, Wind and Cloud are separate for the majority of the movie which is a big no-no to me. They are reunited towards the end but Cloud still has amnesia and Wind decides to leave it this way until Cloud figures it out for himself. They don't even get to fight Jue together. What the hell. I wanted to see some team-up to see how Jue could hold against them but I didn't get to see it. This is the movie's biggest downfall. The movie is 90 minutes long, but it felt much longer. I found myself looking at how much time I had left because I was bored out of my mind at some parts. I watched the movie to see Wind, Cloud, and all my other favorites, not some new characters I don't care for. The scenes with these new characters just took too much.

Acting. How was it? I thought it was pretty good. The voices all seemed like they could act. But the casting? I thought it was alright. My biggest problems were with Wind and Cloud. I have no problems with Richie Ren or Nicholas Tse, but damn they really should've been opposite roles. Richie has a deep and commanding voice that I would've expected to be coming out of Cloud and Nicholas has that young charisma voice that I expected to come out of Wind.

Onto an absolute positive is the CG. The fights have added CG effects that are just too beautiful to ignore. Now mind you, I've only seen CG in 2-D movies like the first 3 Pokemon movies so I don't know how good they are lately but these are easily some of the best CG I've ever seen in an animated movie.

Overall as an SR fan, I'd give it a 6/10. Average movie fan, maybe a 7/10.

Anyway, here's a list of things I liked and didn't like.

Like:
-The bit where the kid asked if his biceps were as big as Cloud's and the girl said his biceps were bigger than his head.
-Ao Jue and Nameless getting into this crazy fight over a fish. Jue manipulates the water in this CG spectacle and Nameless calmly plays his ehru and shoots off energy with each string plucked.
-Everytime Wind kicked. There was a blue CG effect to it and when he kicked faster, that was just too kill.
-Wind vs. that Bat Gang Leader.
-Cloud palming Duan Long in the chest.
-Crazy Wind chasing Duan Long.
-Duan Long getting what he deserves.
-Cloud vs. Ao Jue. That sword tornado Cloud did was crazy.
-Nameless shooting off a million swords against Jue.
-Wind and Cloud's second fight. It was....groundbreaking
-The main theme by Richie Ren. Beautiful song.

Dislike (Most as an SR fanboy):
-WIND STILL HAS TWO EYES.
-How many times do we have to see Conquer die? Seriously. Wind and Cloud I altered the story so he would come back with all of his facial hair white as Casper and Wind and Cloud II opened with him being killed again. This movie is no different. Let the man rest in peace!
-The way Ao Jue was defeated. Seriously.
-Wind and Cloud never fought together except for the opening fight against Conquer and in the flashback where they kill the Flame Kylin.
-Who I remember was never killed by Wind and Cloud. Wind kept it as a pet of sorts and I don't know what happened to it afterwards.
-Cloud does his classic pose in the beginning for about 3 seconds.
-Ao Jue was just an uninteresting villain. You don't even see him that much.
-Because most of the time is spent on those characters I didn't want to see.
-The ending was just ridiculous. I just had to mention it. Cloud leaves with Ying to an island to live there while Wind (still in his Crazy Blood state) goes back to Lin Yin Cave and sits down there while Dream watches over him. Pretty much killed any hope for a sequel.

I'll be surprised if you actually read it all.

I'm gonna get you, like a spaceboy. Whoa whoa whoa whoa!!!