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John Woo's Red Cliff
Feb. 24th, 2010 12:03 amFinally got to watch the copy a homey hooked me up with (took a few months to get my DVD drive working again... long story).
Was it entertaining? Yes. Was it epic? Yes. Still, I think there were some scenes that could have done with less of (10 minutes of burning ships? I get the point already) and some scenes I wanted to see more of (badass women soldiers? Training scenes? Hell yeah). The fighting was pretty brutal, though, at a point, repetitious (and this is me, I like good fight scenes).
It seems more like it's intended as a "movie experience" than a story. Which is... kinda, eh, given what I've seen John Woo do in normal 90-120 minute movies. Still, it didn't feel bad for a 4 hour movie. I liked how the story didn't actually focus on Liu Bei, which is pretty typical for Romance of the 3 Kingdoms retellings.
The CG and few over-the-top stunts didn't fit too well for me. I feel like they should have gone with less high-tech stunts for a lot of stuff so they could pour more effort into the ones they did use. Stunt-wise, because so much of it appeared gritty, the few uberstunts didn't fit the mood they had. It's like if it got notched a little more realistic OR a little more wuxia I could have accepted it.
Still, a fun watch, and makes me excited to go back and read Ro3K stuff some more.
Was it entertaining? Yes. Was it epic? Yes. Still, I think there were some scenes that could have done with less of (10 minutes of burning ships? I get the point already) and some scenes I wanted to see more of (badass women soldiers? Training scenes? Hell yeah). The fighting was pretty brutal, though, at a point, repetitious (and this is me, I like good fight scenes).
It seems more like it's intended as a "movie experience" than a story. Which is... kinda, eh, given what I've seen John Woo do in normal 90-120 minute movies. Still, it didn't feel bad for a 4 hour movie. I liked how the story didn't actually focus on Liu Bei, which is pretty typical for Romance of the 3 Kingdoms retellings.
The CG and few over-the-top stunts didn't fit too well for me. I feel like they should have gone with less high-tech stunts for a lot of stuff so they could pour more effort into the ones they did use. Stunt-wise, because so much of it appeared gritty, the few uberstunts didn't fit the mood they had. It's like if it got notched a little more realistic OR a little more wuxia I could have accepted it.
Still, a fun watch, and makes me excited to go back and read Ro3K stuff some more.
