Reviews

Why is Donnie Yen doing something so idiot? Apart for some decent fight scenes, the plot is stupid, the acting is superficial, the comedy side is really low level, and the end, is it a joke? I never EVER in my all life saw ANY film ending worst than that! It makes absolutely NO SENSE at all. I cannot spoil it, but I at least warn you, because personally I can tolerate a mediocre film if at least the end makes a sense, and I can accept with sadness a good film which ends badly, but it makes me very angry if after losing time with a stupid movie I am given what probably is the worst end in the history of Cinema! Donnie Yen, if you have to keep going on like this, just stop acting and let us remember you for your good films.

EDIT: I have found out that they are supposed to make a sequel. 1) they could and should have made it VERY CLEAR since the beginning, that this was a movie in two parts. 2) nevertheless, there is NO WAY that this end can be acceptable. Under no possible excuse or circumstance.

Slow, too much boring bla bla (of the bad one, just emotional stereotypes) and way too few action. I do not go to watch X-Men to see cheap Rhetoric, I go to see epic fights, special powers, amazing characters. I was not moved nor excited not even for a second. All what happens is very predictable, the characters are few, and all what happens is about Charles, Magneto, Mystique, and the omnipresent Wolverine. Always them. BORING. Just a few new interesting characters on the future side of the story, which only the connoisseurs can enjoy, because there is absolutely no introduction and their appearance is relegated into few short weak scenes. I think this Movie shows clearly that X-Men became a a sort of TV Series, just in the Cinema. Here the writers sacrificed an entire Movie to the "development" (=low level stereotypical) of the personality of a couple of characters, cutting away action, epic, speed, diversity, news, etc. Problem is that this is a Movie, not an episode of a TV Series (which you have to wait a week to see the next one), a Movie for which people had to wait years, as they will have to wait before the next. The writers are going in circles. Nowhere.

Although from the synopsis I thought this was not the kind of film I can enjoy, I decided to watch it after reading the (at the moment only) review, by Christian. I must say, he was right. This film is great! It had my complete attention from beginning to end. It is funny, original, mysterious, intelligent, intriguing, sweet, sad, mental, philosophical, emotional, from time to time thrilling. There are names of fictional characters which recall names of famous geniuses, and sort of gags/tributes to them, which to be fully enjoyed require you to at least know, for example, who Isac Newton was and how important for him things like weight/gravity and apples were. And probably if you are a somehow philosophical/mental type you may enjoy some aspects of this film differently. But I am sure that whatever kind of person you are, this film will give you much. And you will not forget it.

If the apparently complicated conversations about philosophical themes sometime confuse you, do not try to follow them. They are there to make you smile, so smile of their complexity, and enjoy the whole of the film, the romance, the comedy, the drama, the mystery. This film is really different. Oh. It was a long time that I was not so deeply and lightly and fully and gently pleased by a movie. The actors are also very good.

Somehow this film reminds me of "Waking Life" and of "I Love Huckabees", for its mixture of mentality and emotionality and comedy.

I do not give it a 10 just because nobody is perfect :D And like Christian wrote: please watch it! Please for you, not for me. Because you will like it. So do not miss this opportunity!

So, after watching the first one and finding it stupid but entertaining, I watched this and I just wonder WHY do they need all those famous actors to do a crap like this. This is such a waste of potential. It is just boom boom all the time, no real power, no intensity, no epic, no elegance, no speed, no thrill, no suspense, no nothing. You call this action? This is a meaningless mess! And all those actors together become boring after a while. Instead of multiplying each other their individual strength, they lose intensity because all is just a chaos and none of them has enough space. The storyline is null. The script is childish. The supposed funny lines make not laugh anybody. Why should somebody laugh with Chuck Norris who makes a joke on himself like the ones you can find in Internet, about a Cobra who's beaten him and died in agony? Why should be funny that somebody says to Arnold "if you do not give it back to me I will terminate your ass"? Because everybody will think about Terminator? This is so POOR, so stupid... Plot has more holes than a Gruyere. Actually plot IS a hole, with some action around. The fights and killings are ridiculous, people are there coming in hordes just to be killed, without the MINIMUM realism. Stallone and the other writers do not understand that what makes an Hero strong are his strong enemies. If a Giant fights against many little powerless creatures and kill them all, nobody is impressed. But if two people of great power fight each other, the fight is memorable! Here you have a lot of "big" heroes against a brunch of powerless ants. As said, NO INTENSITY. The only bad "hero" is Van Damme. This is a MISTAKE. It would have been much more interesting to have a corresponding number of equally big villains. 10 big Heroes, ten big villains. Or so. By the way, these supposed heroes look so unimportant in this movie. The ONLY one who brings something interesting to the movie is Jason. Apart for when he must act a funny line, badly written by, hmmm, who wrote this terrible script by the way? So much money and they could not even pay a decent writer? The only good line in the entire movie was the one between Stallone and Arnold at the end: "that thing is for a museum" "we all are". Yes. You are!

I have found the film just OK. For my tastes it is really too old school. Directing/filming fights in this way, is for me prehistory. I do not like either films where all is special effects. But here all is just confused and flat. So many people fighting, no breaks, no special angles, direction is really straight and old school. There are moments that in my opinion are even ridiculous. I cannot understand how this film got to get 7,6 rating here and 96% in Rottentomatoes! That's just extremely exager-rated. Anyway, the acting is OK, and in the fights (which are concentrated in the last third of the movie) there are some good moments. But honestly I felt absolutely nothing watching this film. No tension, no emotion, no excitement, no epic feeling. And the characters gave me also absolutely nothing. The film is written and directed and shooted in a way that I felt just a distant observer of a flat scene.

I thought this would have been just a martial arts movie. I was wrong. It is more than that. I actually would not classify it as Martial Arts movie, but as Historic Movie (about a moment in time of a Country where Martial Arts where important). The events narrated and the way they are narrated take a more important place than the (anyway very good) martial arts scenes. I cannot understand its underrating! It is absolutely wonderfully acted, moving, epic. The characters are so human, you can "fall in love" with them, almost all actors give to their character such a humanity. This is FAR WAY BEYOND any martial art movie I have ever seen in long time. A fight for ideals, of students, of people with values, honor, integrity, dignity. People who wanted to change things. And this story is told with sensibility and humanity.

I find this film much better than the original. In the original the fights were too weak and fake. Here the fights have more power, although the one in the Cyclone was weakened by not so good special effects. Still I must completely disagree with a reviewer who almost destroyed this movie with his comment about too many special effects. "Thanks" to him I was imagining something terrible and I am glad to have watched the film! I think who saw the "New Dragon Inn" will enjoy this film more, because he will know some of the story, and of the Characters. There are better films of course, but this is a good movie and absolutely deserves to be watched, if you like intrigue and martial arts. Characters are good, the plot is not great but IMO better than in the original, and the style of fights, even if not the best, is for me better than in the original, because more appropriate to what I started to like since when I watched Hero. I would give it 7.5 if I could.

This film started well and ended so complicated and, uff, how to say, empty. I just watched in these days the whole Evangelion and I have now this impression that Japanese people make things too complicated. At the end, this is no more an action movie, it is not a thriller, not a psychological movie, not a drama, it is just nothing. Like another reviewer said, there is this dark matter everywhere in this movie, all is dark matter, it is boring, one ship (and one man) can win against thousand powerful enemies just because of this dark matter. No plot, no fun. Then this "let's close the circle" mania of Japanese films, a bit like "luke I am your father", where all must be connected and find a meaning from itself, somehow onanistic cinematography. Just make things simple man! Good animations and good chances, but at the end, a mess.

I did not watch the original 26 episodes series but I watched in these days all Evangelion films, because of the high ratings: Death and Rebirth (a recompilation of the original series), The End (a rewriting of the End of the series, still considered one of the best Anime ever), and then the last three, 1 and 2 which reboot the series apparently without mayor changes, and 3 which goes in new territories. At first I will write about Evangelion in general, and then about this specific movie here. In all Evangelion the writer touched any possible demagogic stereotype and cliché on earth: father/son relationship, Oedipus complex, a bit of the typical Manga Style sexuality, cheap psychology, and a huge amount of very cheap esoterism with symbolisms of all kind. My opinion? A big omelet of everything, which finally means absolutely nothing. Wiki says that after the failure of his previous works (which he judged as childish) he wanted to make something "deeper". My impression is that he did not even try to BE deeper, rather just to SEEM deeper in order to impress the audience. And I am afraid that only the Naive could be impressed by such a confused mess.

I can still see why this show had success: Evas are cool, fights too, and there is enough mix of drama, action, teenage nerd sexuality in the typical Japanese style, and some sort of epic. I suppose that if you are younger than me and without any knowledge of psychology or esoterism, and a bit nerd, you may enjoy this works pretty much more than I did.

About this film: to be honest, I cannot say it is BAD. It has got anyway all those faults I said above, exponentially increased; it is an omelet, a potpourri of anything which means nothing. It is just too much of lot of things together with no real control or knowledge to do a good mix. And the end and post end keep being too complicated and pretentious and cosmically confused. It is just, too Japanese twisted kind of dramatic esopsychology. Stunning graphic of course. But the rest, the plot, which is vital, well, the plot is disappointing.

I did not watch the original 26 episodes series but I watched in these days all Evangelion films, because of the high ratings: Death and Rebirth (a recompilation of the original series), The End (a rewriting of the End of the series, still considered one of the best Anime ever), and then the last three, 1 and 2 which reboot the series apparently without mayor changes, and 3 which goes in new territories. At first I will write about Evangelion in general, and then about this specific movie here. In all Evangelion the writer touched any possible demagogic stereotype and cliché on earth: father/son relationship, Oedipus complex, a bit of the typical Manga Style sexuality, cheap psychology, and a huge amount of very cheap esoterism with symbolisms of all kind. My opinion? A big omelet of everything, which finally means absolutely nothing. Wiki says that after the failure of his previous works (which he judged as childish) he wanted to make something "deeper". My impression is that he did not even try to BE deeper, rather just to SEEM deeper in order to impress the audience. And I am afraid that only the Naive could be impressed by such a confused mess.

I can still see why this show had success: Evas are cool, fights too, and there is enough mix of drama, action, teenage nerd sexuality in the typical Japanese style, and some sort of epic. I suppose that if you are younger than me and without any knowledge of psychology or esoterism, and a bit nerd, you may enjoy this works pretty much more than I did.

About this film: like the number 1, it is almost a copy and paste of the series, but this time with some more changes, which, as another reviewer said, I also find good, giving more action and some more credible psychology, and less of the biblical potpourri which the author should make eternal amend for (being really stupid and pretentious). If you enjoyed the series and/or the recompilation and/or the number one, you will surely enjoy this movie. I loved the end, being myself a terrible romantic. Even if then the number 3 completely ruined everything.

I did not watch the original 26 episodes series but I watched in these days all Evangelion films, because of the high ratings: Death and Rebirth (a recompilation of the original series), The End (a rewriting of the End of the series, still considered one of the best Anime ever), and then the last three, 1 and 2 which reboot the series apparently without mayor changes, and 3 which goes in new territories. At first I will write about Evangelion in general, and then about this specific movie here. In all Evangelion the writer touched any possible demagogic stereotype and cliché on earth: father/son relationship, Oedipus complex, a bit of the typical Manga Style sexuality, cheap psychology, and a huge amount of very cheap esoterism with symbolisms of all kind. My opinion? A big omelet of everything, which finally means absolutely nothing. Wiki says that after the failure of his previous works (which he judged as childish) he wanted to make something "deeper". My impression is that he did not even try to BE deeper, rather just to SEEM deeper in order to impress the audience. And I am afraid that only the Naive could be impressed by such a confused mess.

I can still see why this show had success: Evas are cool, fights too, and there is enough mix of drama, action, teenage nerd sexuality in the typical Japanese style, and some sort of epic. I suppose that if you are younger than me and without any knowledge of psychology or esoterism, and a bit nerd, you may enjoy this works pretty much more than I did.

About this film: well, the first half is just a recompilation of episodes of the series, and the second part is a preview of the movie "End of Evangelion", so I would say: watch the first half. If you like it, you can watch directly End of Evangelion skipping the last part of this movie. I personally did so. The first half of this, then the End, then 1 and 2 (reboot of the Series), and then the horrible 3. Even if I am sure that watching the whole series would be a more complete experience, the vision of this recompilation and of the reboot 1 and 2 gave me enough not to feel I miss the series, and showed me that I may not like the series so much to dedicate to it more time.

I did not watch the original 26 episodes series but I watched in these days all Evangelion films, because of the high ratings: Death and Rebirth (a recompilation of the original series), The End (a rewriting of the End of the series, still considered one of the best Anime ever), and then the last three, 1 and 2 which reboot the series apparently without mayor changes, and 3 which goes in new territories. At first I will write about Evangelion in general, and then about this specific movie here. In all Evangelion the writer touched any possible demagogic stereotype and cliché on earth: father/son relationship, Oedipus complex, a bit of the typical Manga Style sexuality, cheap psychology, and a huge amount of very cheap esoterism with symbolisms of all kind. My opinion? A big omelet of everything, which finally means absolutely nothing. Wiki says that after the failure of his previous works (which he judged as childish) he wanted to make something "deeper". My impression is that he did not even try to BE deeper, rather just to SEEM deeper in order to impress the audience. And I am afraid that only the Naive could be impressed by such a confused mess.

I can still see why this show had success: Evas are cool, fights too, and there is enough mix of drama, action, teenage nerd sexuality in the typical Japanese style, and some sort of epic. I suppose that if you are younger than me and without any knowledge of psychology or esoterism, and a bit nerd, you may enjoy this works pretty much more than I did.

About this film: although it is almost a copy and past of the original series under many aspects, the graphics are of course better. This beginning catch the attention and creates enough wish to keep going on and to understand what is really happening in that fictional words and in the inner world of the characters. If I had not seen how it is going to evolve with the number 3, I would suggest this film nevertheless the esoteric omelet and the cheap psychology. Having seen the number 3, I must warn you that you may be disappointed. But I would still suggest the vision of this film. People have to make their own experiences, and chances there are, that as so many people enjoyed this series, many more will, no matter what I think of it.

I did not watch the original 26 episodes series but I watched in these days all Evangelion films, because of the high ratings: Death and Rebirth (a recompilation of the original series), The End (a rewriting of the End of the series, still considered one of the best Anime ever), and then the last three, 1 and 2 which reboot the series apparently without mayor changes, and 3 which goes in new territories.

At first I will write about Evangelion in general, and then about this specific movie here. In all Evangelion the writer touched any possible demagogic stereotype and cliché on earth: father/son relationship, Oedipus complex, a bit of the typical Manga Style sexuality, cheap psychology, and a huge amount of very cheap esoterism with symbolisms of all kind. My opinion? A big omelet of everything, which finally means absolutely nothing. Wiki says that after the failure of his previous works (which he judged as childish) he wanted to make something "deeper". My impression is that he did not even try to BE deeper, rather just to SEEM deeper in order to impress the audience. And I am afraid that only the Naive could be impressed by such a confused mess.

I can still see why this show had success: Evas are cool, fights too, and there is enough mix of drama, action, teenage nerd sexuality in the typical Japanese style, and some sort of epic. I suppose that if you are younger than me and without any knowledge of psychology or esoterism, and a bit nerd, you may enjoy this works pretty much more than I did.

About this last Evangelion 3: it changes lot of things of what he had done before. In my opinion it is more complicated and meaningless than ever. Animations are good, story a mess. I cannot believe that this is the result of so much time and work. I think he just got lost in his omelet of cheap esoterism and cannot end Evangelion well because all what he wrote has got no meaning, so he cannot end it in a meaningful way. It leaks from all points. After this one, I hope that there will never be a 4 movie.

one of the most stupid, boring, pathetic, ridiculous movie ever made. all is wrong. even the photography which started good, becomes quickly annoying. presumptuous, rhetoric, low level, no elegance, all tones are wrong, Zeus for example, the way he is acted, is just wrong, completely wrong psychology. Each single character develops wrongly, acts wrongly. The script is very bad.

That this film has got a 6 rating, it is the proof that a bit of ketchup and loudness, and some cheap special effects, can fraud the dummies.

And btw, it should be forbidden by law for Mickey Rourke to act again. He is really a dark soul in a awful body and just seeing him makes me vomit. His voice more over is unbearable.

What a huge lost of time. The film is bad acted, bad directed, bad written. Everything, photography included, recall of TV-Movies rather than Cine Movies. And in my opinion, a story created on the idea that "All government assistance is depicted as creating moochers by allowing poor people to leech the hard earned wealth of the rich and powerful" is not worth seeing. I understand that the writer of the book lived in Russia in the horrible times. But she should live now, to see what not only the Communism but also the Capitalism and her beloved rational selfishness are not going anywhere. It is a mistake to say that any form of collectivism is wrong. and that any form of state interference in economy is wrong. And the fact that in our society there are few super rich people and lot of super poor, is a proof that till everybody will be free to do hat he wants, everybody will just do what he wants, taking all what he can, and leaving nothing to the others. In this film a character says "the state take everything they want and taxes what is left". That is exactly what capitalist does. They take everything they wants, and leave the others with all the taxes to pay. So, I do not like neither the idea of the writer, nor the realization.

I did not read the book but I find the film excellent. Very well acted (particularly the actress who performs Tris is very good.), interesting, caught my attention all the time. That our society must change, is obvious. That until we do not change inside, any form that our society will take will always be unstable because we will destroy all again and again, is also obvious. So I like films like this, which show how a possibly good idea can turn bad if people start repeating the same mistakes we are doing. For me, 8/10.

I understand well those who have read the book. But they must understand how difficult it is to put one book in one film.

Although it is true that the big part of the original (huge) book was about the Pilgrimage mentioned in the Synopsis, there are two things you should know: the pilgrimage was more an adventure full of battles, monsters, magic powers, and epic Characters, rather than just a pilgrimage; and this movie concentrates on the first part of the book, before the pilgrimage (actually the Monk does not even appear), on the genesis of the Monkey King. The book was written by a great Taoist monk and it is full of hidden knowledge which not everybody can consciously understand, but it is so well done, so full of adventure and action and funny things, so intriguing and entertaining, that in the centuries it became one of the (if not the) most important books in the popular Chinese culture. There are many layers in it and it was made in such a way that almost anybody can enjoy it. The Monkey King became an extremely popular character, and even Dragonball comes from that book! This film is a bit strange, the special effects are not the best, and some things in the realization will need a bit effort from the western audience, but it is OK, you must understand that as said this is a Chinese story and obviously not made with the western people as main target. But whether you are interested or not in the background of the story, the film is pleasant and entertaining and you can surely enjoy it :) Now I just hope there will be other movies with the rest of the book!

From the cover and the synopsis I was expecting something which at the beginning I did not receive. But then, after a quite strange part in the middle, the promise was fulfilled. Not in a "Matrix" style, not in an Action Sci Fi style with ton of special fx as I generally like. More strange, somehow low-budget, in certain aspects original and unconventional. But I was not disappointed, because the film is well done, never boring (even if there are some strange parts, especially in the middle, where I was thinking "wtf are they trying to say?"), and well acted. And because the message, what the society achieve in this story, is what I would like to see in the world I live in...

The movie is WAY BETTER than the rating would let you believe! I really cannot understand how people can not like it.

Or maybe there is a conspiracy of the Multinationals :)

There is nothing special in this movie, but it is not a bad movie. It keeps you with the wish of seeing more and I was not bored. But I was not surprised. I think the direction failed. It could have made this film much more special. All the elements are there. The actors are OK. But something is missing. Anyway, not all films can be all 10/10. So, this film for me deserves to be seen, because after all is not so predictable, and as said is not, or was not for me, boring, and what I think can be strategically good is that this film can be watched by lot of different people with different tastes and sensibilities. Not, probably, by very sensible persons, but being not very very full of suspense and thrills and disgusting things (well, at least not so much), it has a relatively wide public to satisfy.

It is not a teenager movie like another reviewer said. Not in my opinion. And also this "perverted" I did not see it at all. I personally found this movie just, entertaining. It is not wonderful, and somehow there are not kept promises. But it was a bit funny, a bit sexy, a bit intriguing. You want to follow the movie and see what this little assh....e of the main character can do next. And well, yes, it is full of teens and teens are teens, with all what beautiful and annoying there is int that.

And even with some weak points, this movie can be entertaining for many people.

The movie is beyond any doubt well done. Well acted, beautiful images, script and direction are OK. And in ANY movie it is always a matter of tastes. So no review can ever be really objective. So, if you like introspective movies where the action stays in little things, where nothing particular happens, where the acting is everything and where there is not lot of social interaction, and if you liked Solaris, Europa Report, and Moon, then you will enjoy this film. If you are more like me, more for movies where there are many things happening, more than Sandra Bullok's worried face and "oh no, we are lost" for 90 minutes, then you may find this movie very well acted and quite boring.

I like animated movies a lot. And VERY VERY rarely I do not watch a movie till the end, even if it is not very good.

I registered to this website just for this review: I do not remember to have ever watched a worse animated movie. I had to stop at 45 min (I resisted so long just because I was bored and needed to watch something, but the movie was more boring than my previous boredom). The animation is really bad. As the previous review say, yes, you can see that the animators put lot of effort in it, and you can see that it was NOT enough. "they put lot of effort" is enough for amateur theater shows in the local church. Not for a movie. DO you remember those videogames of the past, where the cover was so beautiful and realistic but the animation of the game was totally unrealistic? So is this movie. Beautiful cover, bad animation. The animation is actually so annoying that I had sometimes a sort of seasickness, because the Characters move all the time in a strange way. The story is stupid and narrated in a complicated way. The voices are sometimes annoying. The gags are repetitive and of bad taste. Or I should say bad smell, as the main gag of this movie is a kid who farts. nope. And all is a plagiarism of other movies. Not in the funny way that other movies do. Just in a stupid way, to sell something which alone cannot be sold because has got no value by itself.

I am sure there are bad movies. But to make all this effort in an animated movie, and get such a result, one must really want to fail.

I like animated movies a lot. And VERY VERY rarely I do not watch a movie till the end, even if it is not very good.

I registered to this website just for this review: I do not remember to have ever watched a worse animated movie. I had to stop at 45 min (I resisted so long just because I was bored and needed to watch something, but the movie was more boring than my previous boredom). The animation is really bad. Do you remember those video-games of the past, where the cover was so beautiful and realistic but the animation of the game was totally unrealistic? So is this movie. Beautiful cover, bad animation. The animation is actually so annoying that I had sometimes a sort of seasickness, because the Characters move all the time in a strange way. The story is stupid and narrated in a complicated way. The voices are sometimes annoying. The gags are repetitive and of bad taste. Or I should say bad smell, as the main gag of this movie is a kid who farts. nope. And all is a plagiarism of other movies. Not in the funny way that other movies do. Just in a stupid way, to sell something which alone cannot be sold because has got no value by itself.

I am sure there are bad movies. But to make all this effort in an animated movie, and get such a result, one must really want to fail.