Nor did I think the battle scenes were that exciting, despite all the rave reviews and technical accomplishment awards that\u2019s already heaped on these two films. It doesn\u2019t take much to spot the background soldiers whacking toy sticks at each other or just standing around pretending to be pitted in mortal combat. Woo needs to take lessons from the true master of army melee combat, i.e. from Wolfgang Petersen who directed those battle scenes for Troy<\/em><\/a>. And that scene of Cao Cao’s vanguard cavalry charging against entrenched infantry was lifted straight out of Braveheart<\/em>, but the latter did it far better.<\/p>\n The much-talked about army maneuvers, including an interesting one involving Taoist cosmology, were all present in the film and were easy enough to follow: but spoiled for me by their in-your-face presentation. You get to watch Woo repeatedly showing you those maneuvers as though he’s nervous about your level of intelligence. \u201cSee? This is how Sun Quan and Liu Bei moved their army. Not sure? Let me show it to you again. Still not clear? Here\u2019s a third scene!\u201d That’s how you’d feel watching those grand strategy moments.<\/p>\n The worst offender was the sequence of reflective screen scene where Sun Quan\/Liu Bei’s infantry uses against the enemy cavalry. It’s used over and over and over and over again. Enough already!<\/p>\n And the music. Just holy cow. The theme itself is admittedly attractive, but it\u2019s repeated ad nauseum in various forms throughout the two films. It’s like a CD player running on Energizer Bunny batteries that has a broken ‘SKIP TO NEXT TRACK’ button. You\u2019d be cringing real quick when you hear it yet again for the umpteenth time by the second hour.<\/p>\n Maybe it\u2019s only the Asian audiences that soak up this sort of Chinese production that\u2019s unfortunately replete with unrealistic action and over-acting. Woo’s other big budget war production, Windtalkers<\/em><\/a>, was a major and critical flop, despite the richness of the source and that the story of Navajo codetalkers in World War II is a genuinely interesting one. Red Cliff<\/em> fares better, but just not by very much.<\/p>\n I just keep thinking what would had happen if a Western director who\u2019s capable of melding solid production work, great story telling, and respectful of Asian sensitivities without making it dumb had directed this production instead of John Woo.<\/p>\n And I\u2019m thinking of Clint Eastwood and Letters from Iwo Jima<\/em><\/a>. Now that would had been a winner!<\/p>\n Continued from the last post. However, the problems I experienced with the films remained solidly at the forefront in my revisit. Right at the top was the atrocious acting from every one in the main cast, with just two exceptions:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/star.gif\")
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