Having just seen this film, it may be awhile before I can complete my opinion of it. I do not know if it was the poor translations in the subtitles, some confusing storytelling with the subplots, or a combination of both that made many of the finer points difficult to understand. I suspect the third option. As another reviewer said, this movie does have a message, and a potentially very interesting one, but I found that many of the events in the film meant to illustrate it were not well defined enough to be completely comprehensible. It is easy to confuse side characters whose names are not made clear and who look very similar in their armor. Other details, like why certain people are now outside a besieged city when they were in it earlier, also seem confusing -- I expect it all does make sense, but the movie could have done a better job of explaining the finer points of what was happening, what with the many double-crossings and irrational violence that happens. And some other things, like a romantic subplot, weren't fleshed out enough for me to buy -- it seemed a little too Hollywood-ish in setup.
Nonetheless, it is a very interesting movie, visually and story-wise. The main character Ge Li is intriguing and charismatic, well-played by Andy Lau. He is an idealist with great integrity, and he often is alone in his beliefs, but still he uses his great tactical ingenuity to try to defend the city of Liang. This is the film's setup. How it plays out is also quite interesting, though as I said above I found many of the points confusing which otherwise might have added the extra meaning to gain this movie a higher score.
Visually it is very good. Lots of money was spent well, and it has the feel of a real, legitimate battle, with much of the brutality though thankfully not the gore. It doesn't glamorize war, but regards fighting for the defence of one's nation or innocents as often necessary. Yet while it is a bit more contemplative and intelligent than your average medieval epic, it still does work as entertainment. There are some scenes that are just neatly push the film over from pure serious historical war drama into fun action flick. They stick out a little bit, but not enough to ruin anything.
In short: it is an interesting, fun, and sometimes clever film, a bit confusing at times with its subplots and side characters, but grounded by an interesting and admirable protagonist. Not a necessary film or a great one, but a pretty good one all the same.
