mawinma Reviews

The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

Visually good, but the plot is truly disappointing

[6/10 · 22 April 2008]

At first, i'm really enthusiastic to watch this movie since it has 2 great actors. But i was warned not to expect too much because the director is western, while the theme is Kung Fu. Well, eventually i'm quite disappointed after i watched this movie.

Let's talk about the strong point of this movie first. This movie has awesome visual effect and panorama. The magic is cool. The background in village, forest, and castle are beautiful. Some dramatic fighting scenes are also well depicted.

Now the weaknesses. First of all, the story line is quite predictable and flat, nothing special. I know that this movie is an easy watching movie, but please, this is too ordinary. Second, the acting is moderate. Even amateurs can do that. As usual, Jet Li is cold, but this time are cold yet uncool. Third, the jokes are not funny enough. Well, some made me and others laugh, but the rest just make a smile. I just remember what Jacky Chan said earlier that he doesn't like Rush Hour because he doesn't understand American humor. I think he feel the same this time.

Finally, this movie is worthy enough because of 2 stars appearance. If it aren't them, i doubt this movie popularity. My advice, don't expect a brilliant story and wonderful collaboration because it's not too satisfying.

Three Kingdoms (2008)

Good, but something is missing...

[7/10 · 4 April 2008]

As usual, Chinese war movie is good. The action and the fighting of this movie is good. The dialog is also cool and the acting is awesome. You'll be easily satisfied by watching the action without thinking the story line.

But there is something that makes feel that this movie is not outstanding. It is the duration. Vaness Wu, the second Liu Dynasty King and some others play too short. You can even skip them and not losing the story line. The girl is also play too short. I might think that she is only a refreshing 'image' due to the dominating men scene.

The ending is quite disappointing. The ending is that the dynasty was reunited by Jin Dynasty. The question is, who the hell is Jin? There are no dialog about it. Must we read the history book first to get the point? I'm sure that 90 minutes are too short for this movie. Additional important scenes are truly needed to make this movie as a depth movie, not just a cool bloody kick-ass.

Overall, it's a worth-enough movie to be watched. Not bad compared to Andy Lau previous Warlord and a good addition to colossal war movie, especially when that kind of movie is rare recently.

The Warlords (2007)

Great Acting, Great Packaging

[10/10 · 16 December 2007]

The acting of Andy Lau was very great. He showed his emotion greatly. Jet Li was good too, he showed the other way to be a bad guy. Tekeshi wasn't bad either. The story it self wasn't easy to be predicted, i like that! Well, the war scene was good, but it only took 5000 people, i wish it was more massive... This movie provide 3 legendary actors and used 40 M Dollar. I wonder how much they paid those expensive actors. Nevertheless, they showed the best performance so the money will not be a loss. To be honest, after watching this film, i admire them much more! Finally, i was delighted that this movie could show good capability to challenge the dominating Hollywood movie. (When will Jacky Chan and Jet Li play in the same movie???)