OK, as some of you know, I went to see the Premiere of Hero in Hong Kong thanks to winning a contest here on jetli.com. I also went to see Hero in Palm Springs this past Tuesday at a film festival. Here are my thoughts on the two showings.

When I first saw Hero in Hong Kong, it was after a shocker of a day for me. I had met Jet for the first time that morning, and gotten to ask him some questions, get his autograph, and take a couple of pictures with him. Then at the movie premiere, I met Tony Leung, and had a picture taken with him, as well as Donnie Yen. Then, when going into the movie, I looked around, and sitting five rows in front of me was Tony, Jet, and Maggie. So you can imagine, I was a bit shell-shocked by that point to say the least. I mean, I had flown to Hong Kong, met Jet Li, Tony Leung and Donnie Yen, and then here I was sitting in the same theater with them and others in Hong Kong watching Hero before any of my friends. So then, when the movie started, I just wasn't ready for it.

I came out of the theater, and remember thinking, "What am I going to tell people? Every one of my friends is going to ask me what I thought of it. How can I possibly tell them I didn't like it or that it was disappointing?" Because it was. So I decided not to say anything at all about it. I wouldn't write about it on the forums, I would only tell a few of my closest friends a bit about it, but I would emphasize the good parts. Now, however, I have decided that after seeing it for a second time, I'm going to give you my review of the movie, as I would have said it then, and now.

My Review of Hero In Hong Kong

Now, let me start out with the precursor... I wasn't really in the right frame of mind when viewing this movie, kind of on emotional overload, so I couldn't really feel much during this movie. Now that said, I didn't like Hero. It had its good moments, which I will go into in great detail, but overall, I didn't like it. I didn't care about the characters at all. There was no connection between me and them whatsoever and this was hugely disappointing to me. After seeing other Zhang Yi Mou movies, I had come to expect to feel something for these characters. To feel their anguish, or at least be able to empathize. There was none of that in this movie. So they all die at one point or another in this film. WHO CARES? You never get to know them enough to care about the sacrifices they did or didn't make.
For the senses, this movie was stunning. The vibrant usage of colour, the precision with which the sound effects were used are all a huge credit to this movie. In fact, they make this movie worth the price of the ticket. But for the heart, this movie is deader than a week old herring.
The editing is too noticeable in places, and the flow of the fight scenes come out choppy. The lake scene in particular. Now I hate to hold this up to crouching tiger, but it screams for comparison in this case. The fight scenes in CTHD were really just visual poetry. They were so beautiful in rhythm and scenery that you wanted to suspend your belief about what people could and could not do. There was a grace to them that kept the wirework from being comical. Unfortunately, in Hero, this is not the case. The flow of the scenes, just never quite reached that level of grace and beauty in motion.
The lake fight scene in particular has the potential to be something so beautiful and poetic, but sadly, it falls well short. I watched this scene holding my breath in hopes that it would redeem the lack of emotion in the film. It's horrible for the viewer in my opinion, because this scene builds inside you, it's like you're watching it and you're like, "almost.... almost.... almost." I was yearning for it to reach the height of poetry. It's within reach, but somehow, it never quite attains it, and the fact that it was almost there, but was then cut short of just reaching it makes it all the more frustrating and dissatisfying.
Aside from the lake scene, there are occasions also that the wirework is so obvious and unnecessary to the fight that it cheapens it almost. The fight scene between Maggie and Jet in front of the soldiers has a moment when Jet is evading a thrust by Maggie, and he slides at an angle backwards, and it is so obviously fake that it screams poor choreography, and lack of artistic imagination. Wasn't there a better way to get Jet to evade that thrust? *sigh*
On a good note however, the fight scene with Donnie Yen was great. The thought of the two of them mapping out the whole fight in their minds, and then with such a swift finish was fabulous. In a way though, this is almost unfortunate to have here, because it sets you up for an experience that the rest of the movie just can't deliver.
But, like I said earlier, the visual and audio impact of this movie is amazing. It truly is beautiful to watch, like a painting is good to look at. And besides, even though the fight scenes weren't entirely up to what I was looking for with them, they still were good to watch. The fight with Donnie and Jet was sweet, and the scene with the arrows was good. Jet definitely has his moments.