Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Infamousta
brilliant actors, brilliant editing
Taraparain
Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
Charles Herold (cherold)
I think a lot of people just love badly plotted Hong Kong films with cheesy, unconvincing action. The ecstatic reviews here for this movie are proof of that. But I don't just like cheesy movies simply because they are cheesy, and need a basic level of competence to enjoy something.The story, which is a mishmash of loosely strung together ideas that don't make any particular sense, involves three women with martial arts skills. One is in thrall to an evil weirdo, one helps the cops out, and the most interesting, played by Maggie Cheung, is a brassy mercenary. They fight, they team up, they make speeches, and it's all just terrible.A lot of the user reviews say that, whatever the lack of merit in the story, the film is redeemed by its great action scenes. To which I reply, huh? The action is terrible. That scene people seem to love where "wonder woman" runs along telephone wires? It's completely unconvincing; poor wire-fu that is unconvincing even without that discipline. Using slow-mo and quick shots, there's little indication that anyone has any martial arts experience (except Cheung, who looks pretty good), and you could easily cast grade-school children in the roles and get the same effect.If movies like Hero represent how amazing wire-fu action can be, The Heroic Trio just as ably represents how poorly it can be done.The one ingenious moment in the film, the final fight, is undone by some of the most terrible special effects I have ever seen in the history of motion pictures. Seriously, I've seen better special effects in films by high school students.The three actresses are pretty and probably can act (I saw a reasonably competently dubbed version, which means I can't really judge the acting), but the script and the action make this a complete waste of time. Unless you just want to see something really, really cheesy, in which case this is definitely the movie for you.
PlanecrazyIkarus
I bought Heroic Trio because it was recommended (rather highly) on the IMDb front page, and because it is not released on DVD in the UK so I couldn't rent it.I was completely disappointed.Supposedly, Heroic Trio has a story. It must be hidden very well, for the film made little sense to me. (Something along the lines of: Demon trains girls to become action heros, but fires two of them before they grow up. Then decides he wants a male baby to conquer the world for him and has 18 of them kidnapped from hospitals by his last remaining female disciple. There's also an invisibility cloak, some police officers and other nonsense in there, but on the whole the idea of "story" seems quite tertiary compared to "action") So, story: Rubbish, confused, and created by combining various stereotypes.But action movies can entertain even without stories (see The Warrior King - one of the worst scripts ever, but also fantastic action). Heroic Trio, however, can't. It has dated badly: Seeing thick wires carry the heroes desperately calls for some digital retouching. In some scenes, you can even see a giant circular plate above them from which the wires are suspended, making them look like marionettes. So, wire-fu may have been pioneering, but is outdated and quite terrible. Fine. What about martial arts action? Mostly, it consists of people standing about 4 metres apart and making quick movements with their hands and feet. Somehow, the illusion that the actors were fighting was rather unconvincing - it looked more like a video game or a dance, certainly nothing where any kind of contact might ever have occurred.Bad story... bad action... and, to top it off, ridiculous special effects. (By the time you see a very flimsy puppet and later a rubber backpack used for a monster, you realise, this film could be bettered by student productions).Oh, and the "heroes" get away with kidnapping and accidentally killing babies, without a second thought. It's probably the only innovative thing about it, but it seems too much like an afterthought inserted for a five second moment of fake poignancy in the middle, rather than a well thought out plot element.Basically, watch this film drunk, with friends, if you want to laugh at something terrible (ideally with sarcastic commentary). Don't watch it for a good story, good action, good FX or any quality apart from being so bad it's funny.Heroic Trio - Attack of the Killertomatoes for martial arts films.
Pickett-San
People are mixed on this film. Granted the production values are not consistent with the current era of CGI and big dollar Hollywood films, but it is entertaining. Three strong, yet femine and very attractive characters are shown in an assortment of surreal fighting sequences. As bizarre as this is to state, this movie feels more like it is capturing someones dream/nightmare. It seems more like something you would imagine in a hallucinatory dream sequence during a very deep sleep. I personally like the move because it does look original and different than the current superhero movie action.
zetes
For the first 45 minutes, I was debating whether or not to turn The Heroic Trio off. I came to the film via Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and, wary that many purists have called CTHD diluted Hong Kong wire-fu, I thought that a real one might be quite interesting. It was, but it wasn't entirely successful. It isn't nearly as good as CTHD. Go ahead and accuse me of being a Westerner. I know I am. The main problem with THT is the editing. I assume these films are made fast and that they are quickly edited. And I'm sure fans care less about the story than the action. The editing here is so choppy that I was always racing to catch up with the film. It took me a long time to figure out the relationships between characters, and a lot of things still didn't make much sense to me. Even if the action scenes are supposed to be where the filmmakers invest all their interest, most of the action scenes are just as poorly edited as the rest. In the old dancing musicals of Astaire and Rogers, the directors made it their point to show the entire scene, so you could see the dancers and what they are doing. The same ought to go for these types of movies. That's certainly what they were thinking in CTHD: there may be cuts, but there are long periods where you watch the actors do their stuff. In THT, they cut almost every time someone draws a weapon or kicks. One of the most effective shots in CTHD was when Jade Fox tossed that round blade at the old man's forehead. We see it travel from Fox's hand straight into the man's forehead without a cut. I heard the audience shout "OUCH!!!" You'll find nothing that good here. At least the action sequences get better in this respect as the film progresses. The final battle scene is a lot of fun and very exciting. 6/10