Warriors of Heaven and Earth

Everything that makes for a great Action Adventure film can be found in Warriors of Heaven and Earth.

Chemistry between actors, excellent music, directing and cinematography, and a good story combine with some decent action sequences to make this tale of warriors a memorable one.

Fans of Gladiator, The Four Feathers, or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

should enjoy this. Solid if understated special effects and and some excellent dramatic moments with a few surprises along the way make Warriors of Heaven and Earth a beautiful experience to behold.

As for Sound if you Can't see it in theatres... at least try to see it with an AC3 or THX/Dolby Surround System the sound and music is worth it!

If 100 is perfection this gets a solid 90.

Warriors of Heaven and Earth is a decently made movie with some good plot developments.

The fighting scenes. All of the fighting scenes were done relatively well, being more towards the real side of battle, instead of the fighting scenes from the other big names (Hero, House of Flying Daggers). My only complaint with the action scenes, is that nobody is affected by the death of their comrades. I understand you cannot stop fighting unless you want to join your brother in heaven, but they all took their deaths as the grim reality. I suppose in a way, it is more realistic (we're all going to die anyway, maybe he was lucky to get to heaven sooner). The camera work and plot however did do an excellent job of making you feel sorrowful when a character died.

The romance. Wait, excuse me, romance? Vicky Zhou? What?

This point nearly ruined the movie for me until I got back into the mindset of hey, there are good fight scenes, let's enjoy them. Vicky Zhou's character is completely extraneous and was a waste. Although her voice is nice as the narrator of the story, and she still has a pretty face, she was utterly useless. Not only did she not fight (unless you call the one to two minute scene in the end "fighting"), she had about 10-15 minutes of full, on-camera footage - mostly devoted to questioning Li's criminal activities.

Overall. Lai Qi (Kiichi Nakai) and Li Zai (Wen Jiang) carry the entire movie. It's interesting that Jiang is not in the credited cast as he probably had the most screen time in the entire movie.

Should you see it? There are a couple things to take into account. 1) If you're not used to HK films, this isn't a good one to start with, unless you abhor the Chinese humor in older less epic films 2) It will probably make you depressed. Maybe it's just me... What else has made me depressed you might ask? Let's see: So Close, Hero, House of Flying Daggers...

I give it a 7 out of 10. I had hoped for something slightly better, but then again, it was realistic and the final battle scene reminded me of what the LOTR battle for Helm's Deep would have been if the good guys hadn't all survived -- Classic.

This is not a Kung Fu action movie, so those looking for fight scenes will be disappointed. It is a thrilling story of two warrior knights acting under their own sense of honor and called to action in circumstances beyond their control, against the backdrop of the turbulent and multi-cultural Silk Road. China being the vast country it is has birthed many such thrilling adventures of wandering warriors, itinerant mercenaries, Buddhist monks and pretty maidens. Think of romance or adventure novels based on the Middle Ages! The thrill of the story is to watch the two warriors meeting, one supposedly as the imperial agent sent to eliminate the renegade and intent on his mission, the other as the free agent warrior trying to live a life according to his own personal code of honor. When the two of them unite to fight hordes of greedy bandits, we see hand to hand combat, pursuits on horseback and sieges of a fort.

The unusual angles in this movie, for most movie goers, comes from the time and place: the warriors are from 700 A.D, a T'ang Dynasty era. The location is in the far western reaches of China and the locales are not traditionally "Chinese". The landscapes change from mountainous to woodsy to desert. There are thrilling scenes of camel caravans and desert towns and forts. The protagonists wear battle gear and the long hair of that period, which remind me vividly of French and English knights and crusaders of that era! The final siege of the desert fort reminds of the male warrior bonding in desperado scenes like in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"; or the "Alamo"; or the "Three Musketeers".

The Buddhist relic transported by the caravan reminds me of the Catholic relics from dead saints found in many mystery or adventure stories based on the Middle Ages. The finale reminds me of the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" when the bad guys seem to be on the edge of acquiring the treasure, only to be annihilated, leaving some of the good guys to move on...

It is great entertainment and gives one yet another view of the Chinese culture about warriors of its complex past.

Warriors of Heaven and Earth is an interesting film due to the fact that it had so many great elements that just didn't come together. The cast was fine, the setting and backdrop were fine, the outline of the story was interesting, but the ingredients of this picture did not mix.

The problem with the film was timing, budget, and the script.

Excellent Cast including Jiang Wen, Kiichi Nakai, and Vicki Zhao. Beautiful Scenery of the Gobi Desert and the far reaches of China.

The problem was the script. It was clichéd and most of all boring. There was nothing unique, in fact the dialog seemed taken from other films. You have the two guys that are suppose to be opponents who become buddies (aka 48 Hours)who take on an evil warlord and his thugs and defeat them in Battle. The supporting cast (the other warriors) get picked off one by one like (The Magnificent Seven).

Vicki Zhao has a meaningless role in the film. It is pretty much just stand around and look pretty and helpless and do a little narration work while you are at it. If you have Vicki Zhao in a film, you should use her. They made her character as clichéd and one dimensional as possible.

This film can't compare to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Musa", or "House of Flying Daggers". It is what you call a big budget B movie. The fight scenes look uncoordinated as well. After watching the "How the Film was made", I was a little more sympathetic towards the director. The Director Ping He had a daunting task of getting the film made due to weather and the timeline. I think he did not have enough time or money to do this film right. It was just too massive of an undertaking given the time constraints. It looked very rushed and disorganized.

The scenery and the backdrops are breathtaking, actually the highlight of the movie, the script itself was weak. The most memorable moment in the film is the scenery and Vicki Zhao in the bathtub. Now that was some nice scenery too.

I liked this movie but I was not awestruck by it. It has some excellent characters and a very engaging plot. There are a few lines that will make all but the most jaded filmwatchers smile.

But this movie has a couple of drawbacks which mark it as a notch below other films like "Crouching Tiger" and the infinitely superior "Hero." Both of these films also had excellent characters and stories but were visually far a cut above. A BIG cut.

"Warriors" uses jump-cuts and too-tight camera angles in an effort to hide the fact that many of its stars are not actually martial artists. The resulting fight scenes are very frustrating to watch. Like I said, the plot carries the movie along and it is indeed a good film, but I hate getting snookered by creative editing.

Compare any fight scene in "Warriors" with, say, the extended battle scene between the two women warriors in "Crouching Tiger," most of which is filmed in medium shots that allow your eye to follow the line of action. IMHO this is a lot more impressive. Even the goofy wire work doesn't take away from that.

But "Warriors" is worth a rent. You will care what happens to the characters. And you will see a very nice meditation on the question of what, as people of honor, we must do.