Hey folks, Harry here with Akira's sneak peek at Jet Li's latest. While I'm sure the action in this is fun and cool and all... Having just watched SWORDMAN II, I just can't imagine it being that cool. Oh well, we'll just have to wait and see. BTW... AsianXpress.Net has a great selection of DVDs of hard to find Hong Kong films, including many of Jet Li's uber-coolest. Just a tip from me to you!
Whats up Harry! Just had a chance to view a pretty cool film from Jet Li. While this movie was no where near as cool as his recently just released for DVD movie, Fist of Legend, it is definitely going to stand out in 2000 as one of the years coolest. So without further adieu, here is my look at Romeo Must Die.
God I hope this film does well at the box office. The last film that I loved this much was Fight Club, and it was a flop at the box office. Let me start off at the way you should go into this film. Don't go in and expect to see some Oscar-worthy performances. Don't expect great dialogue or great character development either. Just go in and expect to see a kick-ass martial arts film.
Is this film perfect? No. Far from it. The one main problem I had with the film was the editing. There is a fight scene early on in the film that could have been very cool, but the editing is so fast and sharp that it is very hard to understand what is going on. Is it as hard to follow as the opening football scene in Any Given Sunday? No. It kind of reminded me of the fight scene in Sleepy Hollow when Johnny Depp and Casper Van Dien were going against the horseman. I just wanted them to pan out and show it from a longer perspective instead of all thoses close-ups that make it hard to follow. The fight scenes seemed to get somewhat better editing wise as the film progressed though. Another thing I did not like was all this flying through the air shit. They did that kind of stuff in The Matrix because it was not real. This is supposed to be happening in the real world. Even though these leaps of logic were great eye candy, I just wanted a little something more realistic out of this film. The draft I saw was not a finished copy and did not have a final score. I did express how the editing ruined some scenes, so maybe these little nit-picks will be changed before the film's release.
Now for the good stuff. When this film is in high gear, you may want to have a napkin ready to wipe the drool off your face. I had no idea Jet Li was this awesome. When I first saw Leathal Weapon 4, I knew Li had a future in front of him. I just thought he was a decent martial artist and thought that Jackie Chan could whoop his ass any day of the week. After seeing Li in action here and in Fist of Legend, I have changed my thinking. Remember in the trailer when you see him doing something crazy with a hose? That my friends is just a taste.This guy is not a bad actor at all either. In fact, this film has decent performances all around. The main surprise here was made by Aaliyah. I did not expect a lot out of her but she did fairly good job. I must also give kudos to the cinematographers that worked on this film. It is just great to look at, and the scenery just sucks you into every situation. Something I did not get out of The Matrix.
That's about all I can say about this overall great film. I know this film will probably be compared to The Matrix a lot. And for the record, I liked Romeo Must Die better. Fans of martial arts and action movies will not want to pass this one by when it is released. We may not get another one like it for a long time!
Just call me Akira. See ya!
