CinemaSerf (February 8, 2025)

This had great potential as a martial arts extravaganza, but it relies way too heavily on some very repetitive and not so special effects to get its story across. It’s all about “Guo Jing” (Zhan Xiao) who’s the adopted (Han) son of the great Mongol chief Genghis Khan (Bayaertu). He has been out on a mission when he encounters the young “Huang Rong” (Dafei Zhuang) and the two sort of fall for each other, then a serious misunderstanding drives them apart and he has a series of encounters with the menacing “Venom West” who is desperate to obtain a scroll that will give him powers to rule the Earth. Instead, though, it’s our young hero who - thanks to some expert help from another constantly hungry master, secures the benefits of those teachings. On returning home, he discovers that his father has decided it’s time to make war on the Jin and to do that he is going to march his formidable army through the territory of the “Song” - and the young man cannot allow this transgressions of his erstwhile homeland. Thanks to the Khan’s loved-up daughter he manages to escape and take refuge in the besieged Xiangyang - but can he hope to defeat the approaching army, reunite with his gal and, don’t forget, the malevolent “Venom West” is still seeking global domination. If you’re looking for eye candy then Zhan Xiao does just about enough here, but the rest of the casting is pretty unremarkable and the mythology is really all rather undercooked as we lumber on for two and a half hours to a denouement that’s great for the CGI-fetishists amongst us, but otherwise isn’t really anything much to write home about. The story darts about too much, threads are left unfinished or simply abandoned and by the end I felt I’d got very little to get my teeth into. Visual effects technology is only going to make these kind of epic historical films easier to make, so to stand out there is going to need to be more work on the characterisations and the plot! This has the odd moment of mirth, but for the most part it’s just a procedural waste of an opportunity. It’s my kind of film and I do like the genre, but as the arch-ninja “Yoda” himself might have said - “an handsome man and some deft use of the computer do not a compelling story make”.