Having recently lost 2 hours of her life to a video of "Ong Bak 2: The Beginning"(brilliant scenes, messed-up movie), my sister totally enjoyed the preview screening of Storm Warriors she got invited to.
The plot is condensed to the point of being very generic/basic (for anyone who watches enough wuxia-fantasy, that's why she could follow it without knowing the comics), and the side characters/plots are uttterly forgettable (probably just there for "balance/completeness")-- but the movie skips along quickly from eye(&ear)-candy to eye(&ear)-candy.
Her highest compliment was that there were a few moments (just a few, mind you) where she thought she was watching the Asian/wuxia version of LOTR, and the comic/graphic novel-inspired sequences (the "2D" graphic novel look, etc.) were something new (even a small step up from the likes of "300", etc.).
So her recommendation to me is similar to the reviews posted by the OP: you should watch it if it's your thing (graphic-novel/ wuxia-fantasy eye-candy).
Cos unlike other special effects movies, the Pang Brothers are unafraid to simply call it what it is & deliver the goods-- since the story/ending (& even future developments) has long since been revealed in the graphic novels.
Why do people who don't care keep telling other people not to care?
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Torrible_2013
14 years ago
Pretty to look at but no substance. The slow-mos were overly done and became more exposition than artistic expression. It's like "hey we made a 10 min fight scene but let's expand it to 30min by using slow motion."
Reasons for Wind turning to demonic powers are poorly explained (they gave up traditional forms of improving their skills just because some old armless hermit told them it is impossible to do so even in a few years?) One loss to Godless and they are like "we are so desperate and will rely on any method to power up." I know this is in line with the comics but the way it was written made wind and cloud look like cowards who allowed fear to compromise who they are. I would not comment on the special effects as I watched it on DVD (where the digital transfer is poor and riddled with obvious interlaced lines and pixels)
Every character is paper thin except for Nameless who was the only saving grace in the film. Just how many lines were spoken in the entire film? To give you a clue, the 2nd main lead Ekin Cheng probably spoke no more than ten times in the entire movie. The 2 female leads say nothing useful apart from shouting out names and asking the same questions (is he evil? can he be saved?) over and over. Considering how much I liked the first Storm Riders, this is a huge disappointment.
Tribute to Bruce Lee's Master Ip Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7SV3XMAdyk&fmt=18
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