i must have seen a different film!!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

When the Emperor is wounded in battle he turns the running of the army to one of his generals(Donnie Yen), a man of absolute loyalty but uncertain birth. This doesn't sit well with the Emperor's nephew who kills the old man when he gets a chance. What the nephew doesn't know is that, Donnie Yen was also made heir to the throne. The generals and the nephew don't like this and Yen wanting to part of the politics makes the daughter of the emperor Empress. She takes the throne, vowing to go through the military training and lead her army. Of course the nephew doesn't like that idea either and he begins to plot to take control of the kingdom by force.A romantic action film with a triangle at its center (the empress is rescued by an inventor in the woods who doesn't know who she is, and doesn't let on he's a great fighter. That pair falls in love while Donnie yen looks on longingly), this has some great fight sequences but suffers from a romance thats essentially a Cliff Notes version of emotion. The spectacle is here but the emotion really isn't and what you get out of this film will depend upon what you bring to it. To me for the romance to work you have to be willing to fill in all of the blanks the film leaves unsaid. I couldn't do it and just sort of waived my hand at the thought of much of the plot. Actually this is not a bad film, but its not a particularly remarkable one. Its very much like several recent martial arts films, Three Kingdoms springs first to mind, where the action sequences overwhelm the slender plot. Its one of what seems to be a trend where directors seem to think they can be brief with the plot so long as they are showy with the spectacle (The Promise anyone?). Forgive me I need a plot to drive the action.Worth a look if you run across it say as a rental, but I would be hard pressed to really justify a 12 buck viewing in theaters. (This is going to be the first film screened as part of this years New York Asian Film festival which strikes me as rather an odd choice since its strangely unremarkable film to be part of a film festival. The film is neither the best nor the worst of its type, its just something thats unremarkable part of the middle of the pack)

I watched this film becuz the trailer is quite good "love in war" D". The acting is OK OK. The storyline is too simple. Everything happened easily like in cartoon and fairy tale. If war is easily stopped by such naive words of a princess or anyone else, there were not World War 1 and 2. And up until today, there's still wars happening in parts of the world. A princess fell in love with a guy in days when hearing he said some nice words like " War only bring pain". the meaning of this film is announced by him too. Its like he was shouting at us "The meaning of this film is "war only bring pain". Everyone got it?" . I don't get it.The battle scenes has no intensity at all. I feel like there are just a few group of ppl fighting each other. Why there are several cut-off scenes. It seems that the director didn't know how to direct the scenes properly, so he decided to jump from scenes to scenes. Give it 4/10 for the gud trailer and the ending.

WELL WORTH THE WATCH! Some may point out its flaws with reality, but that is not what the movie is about. It is an intense, well choreographed fantasy about feuding nations, betrayal, and the love story caught in the middle that almost all war movies have. The action scenes along with the amazing design details in the armor and weapons are what really makes the film. You will definitely not go wrong in watching this movie. The major critique that I have is that the love story seemed a bit weak and disconnected from the rest of the plot. They did attempt to incorporate it within the background of the characters, but it just moved too quick to really convince me.

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!