Reviews

This has been one of the movies that completely wasted my time watching. I don't quite understand why it cost $200M, and so many aspects of this movie are wrong. Examples:

• There is only 1 truly mass combat scene, and it is so boring. The editing focusing from the bigger fight to small individual fights was not smooth.
• Fight sequences were BAD. They likely did not spend $200M of their budget to hire a proper martial arts director. Instead of true martial arts fight sequences, they delivered straight-up westernized fighting which is likened to street fighting
• The strength of the Rourans is consistent. At the start, they are this fearsome group of warriors that strike fear to their enemies. At the end, they were so weak that they couldn't even stand against a bunch of new recruits that did not even complete their military training fully
• Overall editing is weak. The movie seems to be pieces of scenes merged haphazardly together
• The entire culture aspect is JUST WRONG. I heard they used scriptwriters that were non-Chinese. Examples include the following: (1) Translation of the Chinese words on the sword was incorrect. Instead of "Loyal, Brave, True", which isn't exactly correct in terms of grammar, it should be "Loyalty, Courage/Bravery, Truth'. (2) Which emperor wears GREEN??? This is ridiculous

(3) No emperor ever leaves the city without soldiers. It is completely ridiculous.

I feel like DIsney could have done a better job studying Chinese culture for a $200M movie, instead, they forsake proper research and settled with scriptwriters who do not know anything (ZERO) about Chinese culture.

If you were to ask me what is good, really not much... I feel sad that they wasted so much money on a movie with (1) haphazard editing, (2) incorrect interpretation of culture, (3) overly simplistic story.

At first, I wasn't clear about what happened at the start, then, clarity formed closer to the end of the movie when parts of the plot started tying up, and finally, got confused again by the ending. I must confess that I initially thought the ending botched the entire movie, sort of anti-climatic (much like The Myth, when Jackie Chan refused to acknowledged his past, making the entire movie a scam)

Then, I started reading about the main actor (Chin Siu-Ho's) real-life issues, and using his issues, relooked at the movie in its entirety, and finally, I understood the movie and how it ended. Bear in mind, that my interpretation is perhaps but 1 perspective of the movie. Someone else could have a different view. However, I must say that this movie is complicated so much so that anyone who goes to watch this without (1) an understanding of Chinese folklore, (2) understanding that the actor is acting as himself and (3) understanding a bit of the actor's past, may think the movie is really bad and would give a bad rating on IMDb.

All said, here's my SPOILER ALERT. I will be commenting on the ending now.

The ending seems to be an alternate reality, where every character has a different path, and the main lead died by hanging, without any ghosts, or vampires appearing. It seems pretty mundane, death is also mundane (no great sacrifice, no dying with a cause).

And yet, that's where the gist of the ending is. Whereas in the 1st death, where the lead lay dying after a major combat with the vampire-ghost, the final scene was just a boring "he hung himself"

When you looked into the real-life history of the main actor, he had issues, he was a rather successful actor in his hey-day, when vampire movies were extremely popular, and he had lots of movies to work on. Later, as interest in vampire movies die down, he began to have less work, having to work backstage, his career going downhill, and also his divorce with his wife. Chinese have a saying, that "Real-life is like a movie, and movie is like real-life", thus they can become murky and muddled up for an actor.

The movie thus, in my view, is deliberately murky and muddled, with the majority of the movie reflecting upon the movie aspect of the actor's life, and the ending reflecting upon the real-life aspect of the actor's life, that despite how a movie can be dramatic, life is just mundane.

Also, that the movie-aspect and the mundane-aspect of the movie seemingly happening at the same time (both started with his moving into the apartment, and both ending with him dying) reflects upon the double life an actor lives (the movie aspect, and the real-life aspect) In the end, his 1st death may be representative of his wanting to leave showbiz on a high note, and his final ending death may be representative of his willingness to accept reality, that leaving on a high note will not happen, and to let go of his past and look towards the future.

I view the final scene, when his son came to identify his body, as a representation that he is putting his past to rest, and embracing his future with his family.

Anyway, that's my interpretation. All in all, a movie with complexity, not just a pure horror movie. Quite a good one in my opinion, so 8/10 for me.

I read the comment by misshaab "Don't even bother", and felt really obliged to defend the series. I have only been reading IMDb for reviews, and the fact that I registered myself just to make a comment shows how much I would like to express my view.

I am an avid Sword of Truth reader, and I really love the story of Richard and Kahlan. For years, I was waiting for someone to take notice of this series and to adapt a film on it. That someone finally took effort to adapt this book, is already commendable to me. "misshaab" probably had really too high expectations of the film, and hence his really strong disappointment.

His thoughts reminded me of a movie, "The Da Vinci Code". It was so closely following the book, that halfway through the movie, I was totally bored. It was so faithful that I could almost guess every dialogue that was going to happen.

There were also comments about the film not having the humour of Hercules, or Xena. However, those were pretty 'childish' (forgive me) in my opinion. The fighting was comical, the opponents mostly never die (you see them punching and kicking and no one gets killed), that after some time, I gave up on the series. What I wanted was some serious fantasy.

The screen version of Kahlan was really good. I like the way the actress put across the idea of a lady with strong determination coupled with an ability to defend herself, yet, she has to work closely with Richard to overcome obstacles. In real life, when you are married, this is what you need. Your wife and you facing and overcoming obstables together. The first 2 episodes of how Richard evolved to become the Seeker was pretty good, watching him growing from a 'kid' to the man he is to become.

The fighting's commendable (much better than the punching and kicking of the Xena and Hercules series in my opinion, and more serious), and the F/X, though not as realistic as I wanted it to be, is acceptable.

Anyway, my take is, put down all your expectations of the series having to be very close to the book's contents, and, you will have a cool and above-average fantasy series in front of you. Just watch it from the point of view of the producers trying their best to interpret the main characters of Kahlan and Richard, and I think this series should do just fine.

I am sorry "misshaab", your giving of a low rating is very regrettable in my opinion because you have too high expectations of the series. Give it a chance. I hope they will produce a better 2nd season as they go along learning from the 1st.