kosmasp A kind of a throwback with characters that may remind you of Shaw Brothers movies. So it tries to combine the old with some new stuff. Especially the fact that this was filmed in English may alienate some people. But overall I do believe it works. It does have a returning Michelle Yeoh (ageless) who is great in this too. In addition we get Donnie Yen and his craftsmanship.The action choreography is good and there is flying again (so if you didn't like the first one or thought it was ridiculous and "unreal", don't watch this either). The story is simple and while Yeoh's character admits that at one point, she almost redacts her point entirely at the end. Some may say she changed her mind. Whatever it is, the movie is more than decent enough, while never reaching the heights of the original (no pun intended).

Guy Jeffries So, Netflix take on the sequel to Ang Lee's original 2000 spectacle which gladly reached a much wider, international audience for a martial art movie. It continues of the sword and fantasy during the Qing dynasty being central to Michelle Yeoh's Yu Shu Lien and this time, Donnie Yen playing the complicated romantic interest. He's not replacing Yun-Fat Chow's Li Mu Bai, of course not, but is simply another character thrown into the fray. The actually phrase "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was first coined by the Chinese poet, Yu Xin, and is sometimes use to refer to the real life military strategist and philosopher, Zhuge Liang or sometimes known as Kongming, the same guy who invented the fashionable lanterns that people release into the sky. Being symbolic of a true master in hiding, possibly waiting. Almost like Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. But I'm not entirely sure who it's referring to in the film. The legendary Woo Ping Yuen, director of many Kung fu classics such as The Drunken Master and fight choreographer for The Matrix returns to direct this sequel. I say return as he was, of course, the fight choreographer for Ang Lee's previous film, The fighting is exceptionally creative, fantastic and plentiful but that shouldn't be too surprising with Woo Ping at the helm. The wire work is unfortunately too obvious, some of the fighting being comical but pays homage to the classic Kung Fu's of old and on the whole, beautifully executed and captured. Michelle Yeoh returns and as always, does impressively well considering she is not trained in the martial arts. Hong Kong superstar Donnie Yen does what he does best and is in no means a disappointment to watch him in action playing Silent Wolf. (Makes you think of Chuck Norris yes?) But it was great to see Jason Scott Lee, though much older than Disney's Mowgli and the Bruce Lee he played in Dragon. Shigeru Umebayashi does a grand score, respecting traditional music of the orient and creating a strong sense of mysticism and fantasy. Something to be noted about this film is the spoken language. Being filmed in English because surprisingly, Ang Lee's film insulted much of the mandarin speaking world, convincing the studios to choose an English dialogue so not to repeat the same mistake. Only three of the four key characters in Ang Lee's film actually spoke fluent mandarin. Whilst it's a good film, it has loss the majestic gracefulness the first film had, a certain elegance and finesse, but as a stand alone martial art picture, it's good enough and very enjoyable. Running Time: 7 The Cast: 8 Performance: 7 Direction: 7 Story: 6 Script: 6 Creativity: 8 Soundtrack: 7 Job Description: 5 The Extra Bonus Points: 061% 6/10

jbotkin-35337 I went into "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny" (SoD) with a mix of expectations. I remember loving "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (CTHD) went I saw it. How would this sequel match up? Actually, really well.To begin, let's remove some false assumptions. Many are upset about the film being in English, unlike the original which was in Mandarin. But there are reasons for this that extend far beyond "Americanizing." In CTHD, some of the stars were not native Mandarin speakers and their accents were heavy. This led to ridicule in China. I believe that the English language filming is an attempt to correct that. Better to have a good foreign language dub than actors who struggle on film, in my opinion.Furthermore, some have said that the fighting wasn't as good. One review I read said that the heroes had become super-heroes. I disagree. There is actually much less wuxia flying and more straight-forward combat. Is it stylized? Certainly. That's part of the genre. But it seems more grounded to me, than super-heroic. CTHD had some excellent fight scenes! But the star wasn't a trained martial artist and his moves looked clunky at times. Not so here. Donnie Yen is in top form and delivers a solid performance. It is especially satisfying to see him alongside Michelle Yeoh (the only carry over actor from CTHD). They fight and act well together.But, SoD is more than fighting. The narrative is key here. In fact, the story for SoD is, in some ways, superior than CTHD. The story and character arcs build on what went before, so we find out more about the previous characters. Furthermore, some of the new characters have deeper connections and more layered stories.The biggest difference between SoD and CTHD is the cinematography. At the risk of the oversimplification, CTHD seemed more artsy. That doesn't means SoD looks bad. It's just a different, more modern style. There are some breathtaking landscape shots that give the story scope! The film could also have been a little longer. There are some minor characters that I wish we would have been able to see more of before the end.The direction, acting, fighting, and soundtrack all work well together, giving us a great film. For me, "Sword of Destiny" is an excellent follow up to the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

gambitvoleur If you're looking to enjoy a corny, period-piece kung fu movie that hits the usual notes while offering a few well-choreographed fight scenes in interesting locations, this movie will do just fine. If, however, you were expecting a worthy sequel to the Oscar-winning Ang Lee film, you'll be disappointed.The acting—which is actually done in English this time—is generally mediocre, although it's hard separate it from the writing, which forces the characters to spout movie clichés and Confucian truisms. Michelle Yeoh is back to reprise her role, and happily so; she's the best actor in the film, and her character is the only tether to the original story besides the sword of destiny itself. The other players are new, and their characters can be divided into two categories: 1) generic members of a heroic motley crew, and 2) knockoff versions of people in the first film. In the first category we've got some of the usual suspects coming together to defend the titular sword. Battle-weary middle-aged warrior? Check. Young man who throws knives? Check. Token woman who also throws things? Check. A big strong guy and a self-taught drunken master? Check and Check. Movies that involve assembling a team can be great fun, whether it's The Magnificent Seven or Ocean's Eleven, and sometimes they can even be great cinema, like the original Seven Samurai. But this film does a lazy, perfunctory job of walking you through the steps. The whole crew convenes more-or-less in one place, and they instantly agree to take on the job, almost as if to say "Look, you know the deal right? Do we really have to put any time into it?" We hardly get to know them at all before battles ensue and the credits roll. This is not to say the movie isn't any fun; it's fun, it just isn't particularly good. In the second category, we have clones of characters from the original film: another thwarted-by-fate love interest for Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), another noble lady with secret sword skills and a criminal past, another young ruffian who acts as a (sort of) love interest for the lady. Aside from the redundancy in storytelling, the problem with treading old ground here is that it makes you sorely miss the acting of Chow Yun-Fat and Zhang Ziyi in the original. His implacable Zen smile and her impetuous, resentful glares reverberated off each other delightfully. Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who plays the distractingly-named "Snow Vase," doesn't quite have that talent. The relationship between Yu Shu Lien and Snow Vase peaked my interest, as did Snow Vase's ultimate backstory, but those moments were all too brief. Meanwhile the main villain is dull dull dull. His sword and chest plate are more interesting than he is, and everything we know about him comes only by word-of-mouth. His sorceress-type confederate, described as "the blind enchantress," offers more mystique, but neither one ends up having the personal significance or the flawed humanity of Jade Fox in Ang Lee's movie. And that hot, bloody memory of desert love that interrupts the main story in the first film? There's no counterpart here; it's only caged flirtation between the young warriors. Like all great mythical swords, the Green Destiny becomes a character itself, and in spite of everything, the fan in me was happy to see it appear again with jade appointments and calligraphy on the blade. But the sword is relegated to the background; it's just sort of there. It doesn't help Snow Vase achieve discipline; Silent Wolf never illustrates whatever legendary power it has, and so without a reminder from the first film, you're left wondering why everybody is obsessed with the weapon in the first place. Without the Lady of the Lake and its magical scabbard, Excalibur is just a cool name. So it is with Green Destiny in this movie. All of which makes it even harder to justify having this movie be a sequel instead of just churning out a new film.Gone are the masterful cinematic moments from the original; yes, there are lush landscapes and pretty side-views of caravans trotting through the forest. But these shots owe more to Lord of the Rings than to the first film. (Even one of the most striking fight sequences—a precarious scuffle atop a snow-dusted frozen lake—echoes one of the many endings in the third Hobbit movie.) The battle atop a multi-tiered fortress and the tavern brawl are amusing enough. But there is nothing that tops the hypnotic sway of Li Mu Bai balancing on a bamboo stalk or the fiery endlessness of the desert plateaus that made the first Crouching Tiger more than just an action flick. The soul-aching, mournful violins and the sense of beautiful tragedy in that first film have given way to borderline camp.So all in all, the whole thing feels like a really well-done, unlicensed fan-sequel. Many lovers of martial arts movies are accustomed to hammy acting and plots defined by tropes, so no doubt many viewers will enjoy Sword of Destiny. But one of the virtues of its predecessor was that it brought a wider audience into the fold. It was a small miracle when the first Crouching Tiger arrived in my little hometown, where even Oscar-winning foreign films don't often make it into local theaters. Even if most of the audience showed up hoping to see Asian people dance-fight in an action flick, they were inadvertently exposed to something more. Something artful. But this sequel, whatever its virtues may be, is just another one of the endless middle-of-the-road options on Netflix.