qwicksilver
Caught this movie on TV, and I honestly didn't even finish it. I don't need to know the ending to the film to give an accurate review mostly because the plot doesn't matter and it's clear that watching more would only sour my opinion more on it.So here's basically the breakdown: The acting's terribly ham-fisted at times.The fight scenes could have been worse but show pretensions clearly beyond the budget.The storyline, while vaguely interesting, is executed in such a way that hurts the teeth just to look at it.Almost everything in the film has obvious pretensions towards being a much better film than it was ever capable of being.What is good about this film is that there certainly was some potential to be a decent television Sci-Fi movie if handled properly. The high concept is just interesting enough to drive the plot along, but it was honestly fleshed out in the worse way possible, making it a simplistic tale about angels and demons, love and hate. Rather than either making the plot less mystical, or adjusting the tone of the movie to be more of a drama, the film tries so hard to approach films that far surpass it (Scenes directly echoed crouching tiger, the Matrix, and I'm sure many other films).Rather than taking the action into the realm of minimalism, the film decides to use special effects that only serve to further exclaim how little money this film was made for. They use the kind of effects that stand out so blatantly as "effects". They are obviously fake, some might be interesting to look at, but it's clear that they have no basis in reality. Good effects make unrealistic situations seem plausible, whereas these are like watching a low quality comic come to life. Even the film effects scream out to be noticed so loud that they prove to be neither interesting, nor original.I can say, however, that the art and set direction are actually not bad. This seems to be the only part of the film that understands its low budget nature, and the set department/DOP seems to adopt the philosophy of any good low budget film, which is to use as many ready-made locations as possible, and to keep the overall look less cluttered and more clean. I only wish that the rest of the film were thinking in such a way.
e-monkey904
This movie was one of the best TV movies I have ever seen. Billy Zane is awesome! An elemental movie? Wow. People with elemental powers are sweet. They didn't have like rock or ground power or time things. They had water and fire and wind i think. I can't wait to go home and get this on DVD. People shouldn't not like this movie for bad acting or whatever. It had good special affects and a story line. 9/10 for sure. Billy Zane is a good active. Now I'm going to go get the Phantom because he is in that as well. If you are into TV movies get this or any movie. Too bad this wasn't on the big screen because I would have bought tickets for it. They should make an Invincible 2 because this was so good.
Masta_Ruthless
Is it me or did this movie steal the Asian chick from Bridget Lin's Bride with White Hair. There are to many things wrong, but let me start with the most direct and responsive. Do not...........I repeat do not let actors with half azz martial arts skills do martial arts movies. Let me name a few if you please. Sandra Bullock, Craig T Nelson, Matt Damon, Jason Statham, The complete Matrix cast, Renee Russo, Delroy Lindo, everyone on Equilibrium, and finally the cast in this crap. There is so much you can do with films like this and martial arts is not one of them. Gibson and Li should have been silent partners in this film because it proves that not all actors can be producers. They even had the elements of martial arts wrong. With the pull Li and Gibson has they could have gotten better actors and choreographers to help this film. Byron Mann was the only impressive actor in this film. This is a complete let down to me, but don't take my word for it, after all these reviews are only opinions.
blueslaad
I have seen hundreds of martial arts movies, old and new, poor and sweet. I saw the front cover, billy zane + sword = NICE. Looked at the review on the back, something along the lines of those 'fighting that puts the Matrix to shame' sort of dumb. All be it (or is it one word) it was a while since i saw it, i can remember a few good bits but. 1. There was ONE i think decent martial artist in this film, the rest of them were slow, as was the actual fighting. And it was simple and bland 2. The seemed to be an eternity of training, fighting training? oh no sitting in rooms doing spiritual training trying to forget horrid things that happened in their past......zzzzzzzzz. WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FIGHT.Anyway if like me u want a martial arts movie don't see this - 3/10 If you want a compelling lively story don't see this - 3/10 If u want to add this to 'films i have seen' then see it 3/10 for sheer underachievement and boredom