Tsui Hark's The Taking of Tiger Mountain

[toddly6666]

Just saw this film. Entertaining but fair and forgettable. Nowhere as good as his first Dee film. His over-relliance on fair cgi effects has tarnished his style of filmmaking. Too many characters and not enough focus makes it pretty sloppy. A bizarre patriotic connection with scenes of the present time is also really really awkward. Film has an alternate ending towards the end which is actually better and more epic than the first ending.

There are some creative scenes (some Matrixy bullet-time moments, tiger scene, and a crazy ski scene) but the wonky cgi sort of ruins it. Hark needs to go back to doing more real sets and more wire work. He still have creative action ideas which are great but he's not doing too well in the 2000s as he did before then.

2.5 out of 5