Some compare this movie to a Chinese take on the new Sherlock Holmes, a seemingly paranormal, period mystery explained over the course of two hours with more than its share of action along the way. All of those similarities may be true, but Detective Dee attempts to bite off more than two hours can chew.
It suffers from abrupt scene transitions, almost completely absent character development, and extremely short fight scenes that I can't imagine would satisfy anyone watching for the kung fu. Not that those scenes seemed to serve any purpose to begin with, most of the reasons for the grand kung fu battles seem to be contrived because it's a movie about old China, of course they do kung fu.
The worst sin this movie commits, however, is its plot, which grows increasingly preposterous as the movie continues. By the time the movie had run its length, I had gone from pleasantly acquiescent to a few strains on my suspension of disbelief, to rolling my eyes at a movie that's no more plausible than the recent GI Joe.
I won't take it away from the film that it was very imaginative and more than willing to be original, while surprising the audience in ways that didn't seem *too* outlandish. All in all, it's the sort of movie I'd like to have on in the background - if I could speak Chinese.
It suffers from abrupt scene transitions, almost completely absent character development, and extremely short fight scenes that I can't imagine would satisfy anyone watching for the kung fu. Not that those scenes seemed to serve any purpose to begin with, most of the reasons for the grand kung fu battles seem to be contrived because it's a movie about old China, of course they do kung fu.
The worst sin this movie commits, however, is its plot, which grows increasingly preposterous as the movie continues. By the time the movie had run its length, I had gone from pleasantly acquiescent to a few strains on my suspension of disbelief, to rolling my eyes at a movie that's no more plausible than the recent GI Joe.
I won't take it away from the film that it was very imaginative and more than willing to be original, while surprising the audience in ways that didn't seem *too* outlandish. All in all, it's the sort of movie I'd like to have on in the background - if I could speak Chinese.