Dreadfully Boring

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

If I mention what this film's about you may be intrigued/interested enough to watch it, so I'll pass. I don't like to write reviews here, rather make comments on films when in the mood for doing so. My rating system's simple: if it's so bad I have to turn it off, a 1 is given... only a couple of films I've managed to sit through have received a 1 and that was thoroughly deserved; The Banquet gets a 2 because I'm feeling generous.Moving on though, the two female leads hammed it up unashamed, Daniel Wu was so wooden he may as well have been the mask he wore with a computer-generated voice and his character was so passive and plain crap, it defies belief that it was the central role in this film. Or maybe it's just? Actually, thinking about how bad his character was, perhaps it was the actor's intention to portray him so?Anyway, any film which is confused enough to want to believe it's theatre isn't going to go down well with me and that was my main complaint with this bag of shite. I kept hoping that the crowned prince would give it to a hundred soldiers at the end in order to get through to his uncle, his face thick with blood like a mask of vengeance, but no, this is the same man who held his breath for ten minutes so that everyone else in his theatre troupe could be slaughtered while he hid and watched.In a nutshell: badly written, horribly acted, gay cinematics with very annoying characters, awful dancing and far too long. Does having two great-looking girls and a bit of wire-fu make for a good film? Hell, no... it does, however, possibly spare this offensively bad, pretentious, steaming pile of dog crap from a 1.

A 4th generation martial arts film in the Crouching Tiger style, with a surprise that took me a while to realize. It is a retelling of a quintessential tale of envy, betrayal, murder, doubt, revenge, and unexpected consequences; in a word Shakespeare's Hamlet. There are numerous changes, generally of reasonable artistic license, for example the fair and innocent Ophelia character no longer has her well worn emotionally deranged scenes after being jilted harshly by Prince Hamlet, just anguish, then dieing in a different manner. The Prince is not at university, but acting school, practicing his craft in a fabulous open air theatre in the woods with a giant slide in the center of the stage; not very practical for a theatre, but excellent for a dramatic assassination attempt that is staged there. The queen has the largest rewrite, portraying her nearly sympathetically; originally a childhood playmate of Hamlet, she becomes the Prince's mother by marriage which obviates some of the awkward intimate scenes (though probably not awkward originally). It is filial love that conflicts her as she realizes the King plans to kill him and this turns her finally against the King. Yet with these many changes and more, from the King's brother assassinating him for his wife, to the final corpse strewn stage of woe, it is without a doubt, Hamlet. Like Crouching Tiger and House of Flying Daggers, it departs from true fight films, and melds martial arts, dance, and acrobatics; here most elegantly in a scene between the queen and Prince, as they practice one of their childhood Kata, an exercise to perfect their sword handling technique. Filmed in slow motion, the swirl of the huge sleeves and tails of their gowns and the flash of the swords truly weds martial arts & dance. It is not surprising that one of today's innovative & talented young directors took a shot at one of literature's great stories, but though this is likely to register disagreement, in truth the martial arts were a distraction rather than an enhancement. Hamlet is full of physical action and sword play, but most of it is an explosive accent, usually with unexpected consequences, the sword play more a means to an end. Though beautiful and thrilling, the martial arts in Scorpion have suffer mission bloat, swelling from a single hasty stab, into a 12 man major engagement on several occasions. You begin wondering when the next big fight scene is, instead of when will Hamlet end his anguished debate and strike for himself and for justice. I would offer Throne of Blood/ Macbeth and Ran/ King Lear, as examples of two Asian adaptations of Shakespeare where the new setting does not distract from the essential dramatic action.

It's a shame, that I couldn't enjoy this movie more. But it just wasn't up to the standards, I'm used to from Hong Kong Cinema, as far as depth of character or story on that concern. Ziyi Zhang is beautiful to watch, but her character could've done with more motivation/back story as far as I'm concerned. Goes for the rest of the story/characters as well.What it is, is beautiful shot, and if you can oversee the mentioned flaws and bumps (in the story), you'll be able to enjoy this movie. Although I'm pretty sure, that "Curse of the Golden Flower" might be a better choice, for a choice as an Asian popcorn delight!

I'm gonna say it directly about my thought of this movie. The plot is too long and too boring, the story somehow ridiculous and Daniel's character especially is very weak and his character doesn't a bit close enough with "Hamlet". The setting is good but it's too dark since almost everything are in black and red. This is somehow a bit disappointment and "Curse of the golden flower" is much better than this movie. The director couldn't bring the talents of the artists. Zhang Zi Yi and Zhou Xun are may be who acted well. The ending also silly and unexplained. The queen just died without being explained who's the killer. Enough of this quite disappointment movie.I won't suggest any of you to watch this movie.