Yojimbo's Movie Review of Warlords, The ( Tau ming chong )

Rating of
2/4

Warlords, The ( Tau ming chong )

"The Warlords" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 02/16/12

Jet Li, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau unite to play three blood brothers who lead a bandit army to victory during Chinese civil war in the mid 19th century. There is something very WESTERN about Warlords. Perhaps it is the reliance on big star names rather than a rich ensemble cast. Perhaps it is the committee written script (although I fail to see why so many names needed to be attached to such a sparse affair). Perhaps it was the fact that all the attention to detail and effort went to the bombastic slo-mo battle sequences. Whatever it is, Warlords felt far more like something in the vein of Alexander than Hero or Crouching Tiger. There is a real lack of humanity about it, and the barely sketched out characters did little more than spout sound bite style platitudes about honour while they showed their "depth" by shedding a tear when doing what "must be done" (ie butcher innocent, unarmed people). In fact there is a real dubious morality about it all, it smacking of the kind of fascist apologism of 24, particularly during the Kaneshiro speech when he finally "understands" about having to kill to do the right thing which left an especially nasty taste in my mouth. I didn't really care about any of the characters, only Andy Lau's garnering any sympathy at all, and their relationships and characterisation are less than minimal until the final act when at long last some mildly interesting political machinations come into effect, although even then the blatant misogynism of Kaneshiro's "solution" to the brothers feud is less than pleasant. As is the case with nearly all of its Hollywood counterparts, the spectacle of Warlords is worth a watch, but everything else about it is soulless, mechanical and ill conceived.

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