Continuing the story of the first movie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2 tells the story of a sword, of a battle between two clans, between divided loyalties, star-crossed loves and... Oh who the hell cares. This movie is a goddamned trainwreck. Let's start with the acting because it's as wooden as Pinnichio's family jewels. Lines sound like they're being read from teleprompters. Characterizations are nonexistent. Relationships are corny and impossible to care about. The decision to have the dialogue in English I think was a serious detriment to the performances of such great actors as Donnie Yen and Michelle Yeoh. Zhang Ziyi turned down this sequel and I think it was a good move. The direction by the fight choreographer from the first movie is abysmal. The editing makes no sense, the story is like watching paint dry, I didn't care about a single character in this mess. And then there's the fight scenes, which are cgi-ridden and full of even more ridiculous wirework than the first one, which might not have been so bad if the CGI and acting hadn't already taken me out of the movie completely. The first film at least felt like it was grounded in reality. This is more of an Americanized cartoony fantasy, and whereas the first one felt like a celebration of Chinese culture, this feels like a slap in the face to it. They even badly green-screen in backgrounds of mountains while people are riding across on horseback. You can't even get any decent second-unit photography? Or any decent cinematography really? Some of the fights have a few good moments but it doesn't come close to saving this movie. It all just feels very half-assed and low budget, and made without much soul of any kind. What a disappointment.
