IR Film Review: DYNASTY WARRIORS [Netflix]
Not missing a beat because of its release only 2 months ago in Hong Kong, the adaptation of "Dynasty Warriors" which itself was a very popular video game series in Asia seems undeniable (with Netflix bringing it to American audience as part of its international films). Since it is a mixture of Hong Kong and Chinese companies that created it, it is an interesting mix of styles. The film moves away from the melodramatic and instead takes a more hard edged approach while still keeping the blood and graphic mayhem to a minimum. The story follows, for the most part, the perspective of three would-be brothers whose aim is to help maintain the Han Dynasty, no matter what it takes and with their best intentions in mind, especially when a greedy warlord overtakes the young Emperor's seat of power for his own edification. While the three brothers do create an interesting aspect (there is a more than baseline reference to the 3 Storms from "Big Trouble In Little China" which themselves were likely inspired by Chinese mythology), it is the two lead powers behind the power in Lu Bu (working for the greedy warlord) and Cao Cao (a strong military leader who is unconventionally brazen in a lazy sort of way).
Lu Bu is simply hard line but has a magic of sorts to back him up. Cao Cao is different but his humor and approach to life is what sets him apart as if the journey is simply a path (and as if he knows he is in a movie). It gives an interesting perspective, especially when it comes to fights...because even with 250,00 troops, it is still a fight ultimately decided by 4 or 5 people. The major issue is that there a lot of plot points, from a rescued concubine to the fate of a emperor to an unfinished battle, that are both interesting in their construct and maddening because they are left open for the most part. This is a high budgeted film in context and while the FX plays a little too cartoonish with the fight and battle sequences, there are some neat ideas and sense of scale (i.e. a horse chase through a forest at one point). Interestingly enough most of the background plates were shot in New Zealand but one can't tell which scenes were physically done on the ground (the river ones are beautiful and one would think those were).
But in realizing the film, there was a little bit of a let down because it was assumed that would have all been shot on Mainland China which would give a better understood perspective of the locations and references. The scale many times seemingly also doesn't match up with the story the film wants to tell. That said, it is much better executed than most films of this scale with so many moving parts. The rock score using heavy guitars is interesting and keeps the pace but doesn't resound with any memorable themes. Many times it is left relatively low in the mix. This reviewer kept the audio in the original Cantonese with subtitles but most of the ADR left a lot to be desired as some of the actors were still speaking different dialects. That said "Dynasty Warriors" is the kind of big international films that are great to see in the States, especially so close to their release elsewhere, because every film is a product of its time so that kind of turnaround is well appreciated. B-
By Tim Wassberg
