An Empress and the Warriors

Someone will point out the plot has some flaws, yet it doesn't matter for me to enjoy one of the most exciting two hours in my life! The movie is full of bold imagination, amazing depiction of ancient wars and the great actions of superhero. Donnie Yen in the last scene is just the Mars and there have never been a character in the cinematic history as heroic as him! You will be touched to cry when Leon Lai and Kelly Chen ride the fire balloon to watch such a splendid landscape of beautiful China! The scene that Leon Lai is going to fly with his fire balloon and Kelly Chen hurried to catch up with him, with the accompany of the Orphean strains of the theme song, will become one of the most romantic scenes in Chinese cinematic history! Believe me, take your beloved to watch this movie at weekend and you will love each other more!

Costume design is top-notch, but that is also it!!! Even thought they used great casts in it; like Donnie Yen, Leon Lai and Kelly Chen.

The feeling of awfulness came when I watched this movie right from the start.

The pace of the movie is really really annoying to watch, surely in the first 10 minutes of the movie I felt it. This movie is SO B GRADE.

Yep, u can feel that this movie was made with a high intensive schedule and again with a Hong Kong movie feeling. Due to the fact the movie is putted together like it is crammed into a microwave. Fast and sleazy in 99 minutes!!! I hate the director or editor really now after I watched this movie. There is nothing that captures my interest , fight scenes nor even got the attitude to be memorable in my head. I don't even think I would watch this one ever again.

The story: itself, oh man, very unappealing to watch it without thinking "BOOOoring!!!" Even thou the movie has got some "magic" or romantic time, but that is quickly wasted by the fight scenes and lousy text lines with no-nonsense-combating-filling-up-the-movie-fight-sequences. (yep ,feels like chewing gum after a long time in your mouth, u want to spit it out because it starts to nerving u)

The music: no memorable lines or even attractive interesting soundtracks, very fast to forget about. The editing and also some non-aunthentic computer made scenes makes this movie stinks so hard so that the music would not live up the whole picture anymore. I think that the music is only there because it has to fill up some gap.

The characters: OK, I would watch how the cast did in this movie, but that would be also it! There is very little to satisfy when u watched it...

The dialogs's: Truly hilarious, some not-logical sentences that comes with emotions are really put in a wrong way, even the timing for some sentences is not used correctly to get an emphasized feeling!!! Not even good to watch this movie I must say, only disappointed, annoyed and sleepy...

Only one nomination is granted and that's for the costume design, but they over do it in the film like its kind of 'Lord of The Rings'and '300' which they almost hard copy it with no originality. So don't bother, go watch another director and/or movie!

Summary: It wants to be an epic, it wants to be an action movie, it wants to be a love story. It switches gears and does all three in mediocre fashion.

Positives: - great backdrops for some of the scenes - a far cry from the older Chinese movies where sets and scenes were an afterthought - battle scene was better than expected

Negatives: - the 3 part storyline was predictable and not all that exciting - the acting - see my message board post about the unintentionally hilarious climax - fake CGI rain looked really really fake

the scenery gives it a passing grade.

An Empress And The Warriors was one-in-a-thousand offerings of historical films that focused on the Warring States, much like The Myth, Red Cliff, Three Kingdoms and many more. While the film may not be as well scripted as many of its peers, it still pleases on many fronts such as the costume design, cinematography, performances, and of course, the action!

Under the watchful eye of the fantastic Tony Ching Siu Tung, and obviously having Donnie Yen in a lead role, you can be sure that any martial arts action on-screen is going to be worth watching. And there is definitely plenty of it going on! Ching gets straight to the action, with the more dramatic moments filtered in-between, showcasing some amazing wire-fu moments and beautifully choreographed combat. I must also note that the weapon (and set) design is amazing...

There is a real feel of a Robin Hood-esque inspired take throughout the film, and more so on the classic Kevin Costner version, Prince Of Thieves, with Leon Lai playing the Robin type character. It's not a bad thing of course, and lends itself to some of the films action sequences as well as more comedy based elements. Leon is also the last surviving member of the New Moon Warriors clan - ironically, looking extremely like Andy Lau's character from the amazing Moon Warriors film (as well as living in a build much like the latter's beach village), of which Ching Siu Tung was also an action director on.

I like An Empress And The Warriors. Although it has its flaws, the film has some beautiful scenes and some great action which is well worth watching for, although probably nothing you haven't seen before in the grand scheme of things given the amount of war-and-wire-fu films available. The love triangle between Kelly Chen, Yen and Lai passes and allows for some breathing moments between the war and action scenes!

The hot air balloon was something different though (and so is the Irish-inspired music over it), but I can't say I wasn't impressed. Ching Siu Tung has a habit of adding these bizarre moments to his self-directed films, so I wasn't that surprised to be honest...

At the end of the day, An Empress And The Warriors is a martial arts action film, and for that reason alone, it certainly does not disappoint. From the one-on-one fights to the epic finale (perhaps inspired by The Myth), Ching and Yen deliver and make this underrated wu xia war flick, worth the watch.

Overall: Think Jingle Ma's 'Mulan' meets Sammo Hung's 'Moon Warriors' and you'll enjoy what's on offer here!

I watched this movies because of Donnie Yen and Kelly Chen. I wasn't disappointed, they both did a good job. Donnie serious as ever, and Kelly's expressions were overcoming at times. The song while Kelly and Leon were flying in the balloon were good too. What impressed me most was the scene where Kelly were fighting back her tears while crying for Donnie towards the end of the movie. Bravo! I also felt for the character played by Donnie. He loves the princess but couldn't show his feelings probably waiting for the right time. It never came and then it's gone, how sad for him. It was very touching too when he went to warn Kelly of the danger and instead told Leon to take her far away. Which means that he may never see her again. A great love story along the line of "the myth".