Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

GazerRise Fantastic!

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Dariunas This was one of those films I knew nothing about when I got it. I liked the look of it, and bought it. The dubbed version isn't too bad as a film, but certainly has been severely cut as I found out when I bought the DVD version.One criticism I have is that even the original Cantonese language is dubbed rather weakly. The special effects deserve a special mention as they are the best CGI to come out of a Hong Kong production, and only The Avenging Fist and perhaps a few others come close. The way FX are used in fight scenes can be spectacular at times, especially when Cloud and Wind use their powers. However, there is little in the way of tight pacey choreography like most successful Hong Kong martial art films.Ekin Cheng is consistently good, and Aaron Kwok is excellent as the brooding Cloud. The characters come across brilliantly with a real focus that's pretty rare these days where most films try to create a complicated character and fail. This film takes it's characters and pushes all the way through.The music deserves a special mention too. More electronic and driving with the distinct eastern feel, it reminds me of high budget computer game music. If anyone has played a Final Fantasy, or Squaresoft game, you'll know where I'm coming from! The story works well, however, to me, the film has a rather unfinished feel to it. They have tried to fit years of Comic book story into the film and haven't quite succeeded. It's a great effort, but VERY ambitious. If you don't know the comic books, this was adapted from, it's even better.In all honesty, there is no film I have ever seen quite like Stormriders, although on the surface, you may think, crouching tiger/Hero' type film, but it has a TOTALLY different feel.This is a film that deserves to be seen on the merit of being more than the sum of it's parts and that you probably won't ever see anything else like it.

masercot What a martial arts movie! Good acting, great special effects and charismatic characters. The martial arts sequences were beautifully shot, indoors as well as out of doors.The plot is a little hazy, at least as to why Cloud would be a student under the man who killed his father; however, he has the appropriate amount of angst, so it is easily ignored. In my opinion, the Cassandra-like character, Mud-Buddha, is the most compelling. Like Cassandra, he misused his gift of prophecy; however, unlike Cassandra, he was stricken with running sores.Sonny Chiba was sufficiently intense in this movie. I've seen a great many of his movies and this is not his best performance; however, I don't think that he was meant to overpower the special effects anyway. I find it interesting that, if I hadn't known beforehand, I never would've guessed that the man on the screen behind the beard was Chiba...Anyone who liked Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon would enjoy this movie. If you like the older martial arts flicks, this one should also be a joy to watch. I give it a nine out of ten...

VoodooVince My oh my. I picked this one up on the basis of the reviews in here and loving fantasy martial arts I thought I was onto a winner. What are the reviewers in here smoking? Even when I don't agree with opinions I can generally understand the reasons behind someone liking a film I don't. But here we have a film without a SINGLE redeeming feature yet it's sitting pretty on a way too generous 6.6. Honestly, this is as poor as film making gets. Awful, awful direction with MTV video editing makes for incoherent fight scenes with no fluency coupled with a dog of a narrative. The film is a mess. That isn't even the biggest problem, it's the films visual style that sells it down the river. It's so contrived and riddled with bad CGI it comes out looking like a CARTOON. Honestly, it's that bad. How can anyone possibly give this pass marks? It looks cheaper than an episode of Power Rangers and amazingly is even poorer in execution. I can only imagine kids under the age of 10 enjoying this nonsense. I'm here to warn any adults who are even remotely curious about this turkey to spend your money on something else. Anything else. If you respect class direction and cinematography try Musa The Warrior or Hero for proper examples of Asian film making. If you love Saturday morning cartoons and are 8 yrs old then get this.1 out of 10Niz

nickthegun I had heard a lot of good things about this movie, so when I saw the double DVD version for a tenner I couldn't help but purchase the merchandise.After a good study of the pack I couldn't help wonder why they bothered releasing it as a double because, quite frankly, disk two isn't worth watching. Disk one contains the original 2hr+ release, in original language plus subtitles, widescreen format and a few decent goodies. Disk 2 contains the dubbed version, a pretty poor pan and scan (it cant do justice to the explosive visuals) and no extras. The only time it ever comes in handy is with mates (or my girlfriend) who cant watch subtitles at any cost. But watching this version leaves them just as confused as many plot points and fight scenes are hacked out. It is more than a little annoying that the disk one version doesn't allow you to change the aspect ratio or choose between dub or subs. If you had these options you could do away with the second disk entirely.As far as the film is concerned (the full version not the butchered edit), I cant remember a more enjoyable film. It really is a spectacle at times, people fly around and summon balls of energy and the sword saint showdown is ingenious. The story is coherent, and mostly makes sense. It bounces along at a fair pace and never really gets boring. The main players are decent enough. Cloud is the better of the two leads, his brooding performance really lends well to the character, whereas Wind comes off as a bit of a wimp (although he is anything but). Sonny Chiba is kick arse as Lord Conquer, giving real menacing performance of the strongest martial arts master in the world.The special effects are amazing, a real visual treat. The actors are quite convincing when they interact with the CGI. The score is also pretty good. The traditional music of the genre is replaced with something a bit more up tempo as befits a film of this speed and modernity. And the 5.1 sound is pretty good to. It gives the old sub a right rattling and the effects fly around all over the shop.Overall, I really enjoyed 'The Stormriders'. Shakespeare it aint, obviously, but it is so fast paced and visually enthralling that you cant help but succumb to its charms. The extras are pretty good, a FX documentary and a making of, both of which are entertaining and fairly informative. Like I say, stick with disk one As far as the Wu Xia Pan genre is concerned this is right up there.