Sep. 28th, 2004

davywavy: (veidt)
Hero has been described (by Arena, arbiter of all things taste, oh yes) as "the most beautiful film ever made" and having seen it they may well have a point. A slightly hyperbolic point, perhaps, but a point nevertheless. Every shot in the entire film is framed like a painting and the skill of composition, be it with colour, set design, or staging, is undoubtedly nonpareil.
But - and it's a big but which many will probably disagree with - neither the script nor the Kung Fu Choreography are really up to scratch, are they?
Yes, it's pretty (astonishingly so) but a film needs more than that to stand and Hero falls upon the script, especially as it gets on towards the end.
On the face of it, the plot is sound; a hero who has killed the three greatest assassins in the land explaining to the Emperor how he did so and recounting his (shot in sumptuous flashback) adventures. And then it goes downhill as the story degenerates into a Waynes World-esque sequence of "He's dead!" "No he isn't!" "Ah, but yes he is" "Now he's alive again!" as the flashbacks get increasingly twisted as inconsistences in the eponymous Hero's story come to light.
A great idea perhaps, but after a good half hour of inconsistency (cut to exquisite flashback) and rebuttal (a new, different flashback that you know won't be the truth either) it wears a bit thin, and part of me expected Mike Myers in a wig to stroll throught the Forbidden Palace saying "Or it might end like this! Doodle-ee-oo, Doodle-ee-oo, Doodle-ee-oo."
Not, I'm sure you agree, what one needs from a Kung Fu Spectacular.
Which brings me onto the fights.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon really set the bar for choreography in Chop-Socky spectaculars and Hero really doesn't reach the grade, which is a shame considering the astonishingly athletic, balletic grace and skill with which Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Maggie Cheung, and Zhang Ziyi are blessed. As it is, the fights (which are, once again, filmed with considerable skill and beauty) are choppily jump-cut and unconvincing with considerable overuse of wire-fu.
Speaking on behalf of the SGKFSAS*, we want to see lengthy sequences of martial arts supremos demonstrating their skills without choppy jump cuts, overused wire-fu, and long slow-mo shots of Jet Li flying towards someone with a sword looking serious. As anyone who has seen Once upon a time in China will know, Li has the skill and ability to provide such scenes. In fact, they're his biggest strength - so why not use it? As it is we see very little of his abilities - but it really looks nice, you know?
Ultimately, the film is like the China it represents: Externally beautiful with a rich and vibrant palette, but which when you scratch the surface makes poor use of many of it's most important assets; the skills of its people, and the potential of its greatest invention - writing.

Three and a half stars.

*Sad Geek Fung Fu Smackathon Appreciation Society

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