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Reviews7
abstract_daddy's rating
Jade Warrior is a new and excellent achievement for Finnish films. Not only is it a martial arts film that was made with a budget of a few million euros (which is still exceptionally high for a Finnish film), but it's also produced and directed as if it was made with a much higher budget by an experienced director. This is no embarrassing first attempt or prototype, but a genre film that's easily on par with modern standards, and also has an interesting, original and intelligent storyline. If you replaced Tommi Eronen with a Chinese actor and removed the parts taking place in Finland, people might conceivably think that Yimou Zhang has released a new movie. Since Jade Warrior is a martial arts film, a lot of attention will naturally be paid to the fight scenes, which are well choreographed and fluidly shot, without excessive closeups and quick cuts. I particularly like the use of flying leaves in fight scenes. While there are some impossible physics, they are used sparsely, and aren't too exaggerated.
The sets, costumes, effects and soundtrack are all outstanding, as are the actors. I think Markku Peltola's portrayal of the demon was especially interesting. Also, I don't mean to sound superficial, but Jingchu Zhang is stunningly and exceptionally beautiful. She's apparently a rising star in China, and is about to do a Hollywood film. I look forward to seeing her again.
Finnish cinema has almost entirely consisted of drama and comedy, with a few war films, so Jade Warrior is clearly a breath of fresh air. Certainly there are many good Finnish films, but they're either drama or comedy. I don't know why we're so reluctant to try something new. It's not just a budget issue, you don't necessarily need millions to do an action film, for instance. The fact that we've restricted ourselves to the aforementioned genres became apparent when I watched the film, because some of the dialogue made me cringe, since films like Jade Warrior are never done here, and the dialogue seems out of place. This isn't the film's fault, of course.
The limited international reaction seems to be very positive so far, and Finnish reviews have also been largely positive. Hopefully Jade Warrior will succeed to the point where we start doing more than low budget drama and comedy. Of course, this was a cooperative project with China, so credit must go to them as well.
The sets, costumes, effects and soundtrack are all outstanding, as are the actors. I think Markku Peltola's portrayal of the demon was especially interesting. Also, I don't mean to sound superficial, but Jingchu Zhang is stunningly and exceptionally beautiful. She's apparently a rising star in China, and is about to do a Hollywood film. I look forward to seeing her again.
Finnish cinema has almost entirely consisted of drama and comedy, with a few war films, so Jade Warrior is clearly a breath of fresh air. Certainly there are many good Finnish films, but they're either drama or comedy. I don't know why we're so reluctant to try something new. It's not just a budget issue, you don't necessarily need millions to do an action film, for instance. The fact that we've restricted ourselves to the aforementioned genres became apparent when I watched the film, because some of the dialogue made me cringe, since films like Jade Warrior are never done here, and the dialogue seems out of place. This isn't the film's fault, of course.
The limited international reaction seems to be very positive so far, and Finnish reviews have also been largely positive. Hopefully Jade Warrior will succeed to the point where we start doing more than low budget drama and comedy. Of course, this was a cooperative project with China, so credit must go to them as well.
Final Fantasy VII is one of my favorite games. Sadly, Advent Children bears little resemblance to the game, as it's more of an extended fight sequence with little or no plot. What little plot exists is very confusing and embarrassing, along with the dialogue that goes with it. Nearly all of the running time is devoted to fighting. Towards the end of the movie, there's a long, long fight against a giant dragon, and right afterwards there's a long chase/fight scene, and right after that there's the long, long, long final fight scene. No pauses or rest, just push on to the next big fight! The fighting isn't even exciting to watch, it's just mind numbing repetition with physics borrowed from Matrix and Crouching Tiger, which did not exist in the game. Eventually I just stopped paying attention to the constant action and drifted off.
The game had lots of fighting, but there were plenty of quiet moments where characters could interact and the story could progress. In fact, I'd say that these moments constituted the bulk of the game's content. The game had a long and expansive story (when you're finished with the "prologue" of the game, you already feel like you've gone through a big adventure), each character had his/her own story, and dialogue was abundant. It was character driven. There's none of that in Advent Children, it's like they just decided to make a film version of the fight scenes in the game (poorly), and ignore everything else. Yes, all the characters appear, but most of them just abruptly show up very late into the movie with no foreshadowing or introductions, and don't really do anything except briefly assist Cloud in a fight. It's like they're just minor sidekicks. Ironically enough, Reno and Rude actually were just minor characters in the original game, but in the movie they're far, far more prominent than the main characters of the game, such as Barret.
In a nutshell, the movie has so much action that all else is excluded, which also means that there's no emotion or drama, and obviously the final fight cannot be exciting or emotionally involving. You can't just have pure action, it has to be supported by a real story and real characters so that it means something. If you're a Final Fantasy VII fan, then you'll see this movie regardless of what any review tells you (just as I did), and there's actually nothing wrong with that, since it's very heart warming to see the old characters and locations, and hear a lot of melodies and music from the game. Watching Tifa walk through Aeris' church (a very, very emotional place in the game, for anyone who liked Aeris) with familiar music in the background is worth the effort of enduring the rest of the movie. If you've never played the game, this movie has absolutely nothing to offer you.
IMDb's 7.8 user score with over 10,000 votes only indicates how many rabid fans loved the movie because it was Final Fantasy VII , and not because it was a great movie by itself, or a great movie about FFVII. I mean, I'm a huge fan of the game too, but I know enough about movies to spot a really terrible one. Michael Bay movies are often mocked for being stupid Hollywood drivel, but at least they're competently made and entertaining, unlike this sad train wreck that's based on one of the best games ever made.
The game had lots of fighting, but there were plenty of quiet moments where characters could interact and the story could progress. In fact, I'd say that these moments constituted the bulk of the game's content. The game had a long and expansive story (when you're finished with the "prologue" of the game, you already feel like you've gone through a big adventure), each character had his/her own story, and dialogue was abundant. It was character driven. There's none of that in Advent Children, it's like they just decided to make a film version of the fight scenes in the game (poorly), and ignore everything else. Yes, all the characters appear, but most of them just abruptly show up very late into the movie with no foreshadowing or introductions, and don't really do anything except briefly assist Cloud in a fight. It's like they're just minor sidekicks. Ironically enough, Reno and Rude actually were just minor characters in the original game, but in the movie they're far, far more prominent than the main characters of the game, such as Barret.
In a nutshell, the movie has so much action that all else is excluded, which also means that there's no emotion or drama, and obviously the final fight cannot be exciting or emotionally involving. You can't just have pure action, it has to be supported by a real story and real characters so that it means something. If you're a Final Fantasy VII fan, then you'll see this movie regardless of what any review tells you (just as I did), and there's actually nothing wrong with that, since it's very heart warming to see the old characters and locations, and hear a lot of melodies and music from the game. Watching Tifa walk through Aeris' church (a very, very emotional place in the game, for anyone who liked Aeris) with familiar music in the background is worth the effort of enduring the rest of the movie. If you've never played the game, this movie has absolutely nothing to offer you.
IMDb's 7.8 user score with over 10,000 votes only indicates how many rabid fans loved the movie because it was Final Fantasy VII , and not because it was a great movie by itself, or a great movie about FFVII. I mean, I'm a huge fan of the game too, but I know enough about movies to spot a really terrible one. Michael Bay movies are often mocked for being stupid Hollywood drivel, but at least they're competently made and entertaining, unlike this sad train wreck that's based on one of the best games ever made.