As a huge fan of the Dynasty Warriors game, I absolutely loved this. It totally validates the experience of those games, and as a result John Woo has unknowingly made the best video game movie ever. The cinematography, art direction, and action sequences are all fantastic. Even at 5 hours, it moved along quickly and was exciting all throughout. It's a great movie.

[This is for the international two-part version]

Zelo zabaven, domiselen film. %u0160koda za tipi%u010Dne kitajske nadrealisti%u010Dne fight sekvence. Tudi zelo dobri dialogi.

"The film's shortcomings have less to do with Woo's orchestration of his ambitious tale and more to do with the Frankenstein hatchet job enacted against it." - Nick Schager

A massive historical war epic that somehow feels more vast than I expected even a cast of 2000 to allow. It's got a certain mass choreography that you don't see every day, but the battles themselves tend to pull in close and become indistinguishable; after 5 hours we've seen a lot of horses falling over and heroes surrounded by spearmen. Woo takes his time getting there too; every scene feels like he just relaxed and let it run, giving everyone a chance to do their thing. (continued in Part II)

Big surprise, the guy who's a sucker for the old Asian "dynastic" aesthetic loved a movie about an epic Chinese battle. All I can say really is, Zhou Yu is a mafuckin strategist extraordinaire! I'm really hyped to see the full four-hour version, but at the same time, I'm so glad they cut it down for the North American audience; I'd agree with the notion that this audience wouldn't be able to handle the full thing. Battle choreography was just unreal. But, as Obby noted - a serious lack of Lu Bu.

Serene beauty clashes with the flame of war in a carefully crafted historical epic. The gathering of arrows was awesome, lol.

amazing, epic, great, brilliant, its everything last samurai, braveheart or that movies always wanted to be

John Woo's massive Chinese war and warlord movie has plenty of action -- maybe too much -- but what it lacks is grandeur a la Shaolin. Still, it doesn't sprawl or meander much and there are a number of indelible characters and some impressive fight scenes. I particularly enjoyed the final act. This rating is for both Part 1 and II.

I watched the theatrical version. The performances are solid (Kaneshiro is particularly good), but you can tell more attention was paid to choreography and production values (like what has to be Woo's longest dove scene) than anything else.

While I can appreciate the visuals and the tactics behind some of the war scenes, it is all too exaggerated and lengthy. Fight scenes start to get boring if they last for too long...

Reviewing both parts as one film. Very high production value and really nice emphasis on tactics. The plot is predictable by the tactics on the battlefield are not. Weak, hammy dialog and some overlong scenes drag the run time to a total way longer than it should have been, but the battles are so well done that it doesn't really matter that much. Far better than most Asian war movies, very glad they didn't give anyone the unexplained ability to fly.

81.500

This is for the cut down Western world version

19/10/2011

A little too melodramatic for me, but the set pieces were nice and some of the shots really are breathtaking. Also, apparently they based it less off of Three Kingdoms, and more off the tales/documents from ~600s (AD), I believe.

If you are one of those viewers, who got a rash by to much pathos, stay far away from Woo´s Movie, cause Red Cliff is full of it with each passing Minute. Apart from this Woo created a brute and epic Movie about the day of the decisive battle in the Ming Dynasty.The battle scenes are very impressive and the Movie gets better and better ´til the final attack by sun quan and liu bei.

I rate both parts as one, because it's really just one movie cut in two. This is one of the best war movies ever. The beginning is not exactly gripping and I felt disappointed, but this feeling didn't last long as the movie picked up and offered a brilliant experience. Extremely high production values and sooooo beautiful soundtrack make this one shine. And if you're a fan of the Three Kingdoms era, this is a must.

While the beginning falters, the rest of the film picks up awesome (ludicrous?!) speed. Honestly, it felt like watching the new Star Wars (Kurosawa wipes, Kaneshiro playing Obi Wan), only MUCH better. There is genuine awe, danger, and ingenuity in the "war" battle choreography, although seeing every single thing 6 times in slow-mo is irritating at times.

Two and a half hours seem more than too much, although any complaints about the mess of it, the incoherent jumble, might invite a challenge from its partisans to sit through the unabridged version before rendering judgment.

The American version is obviously a bit choppy, but the action scenes are spectacular in scope....shame about that terrible cgi though.

There is an idiom in my language which roughly translates as : "I would rather be a thorn on the mountain of freedom, than being a rose on the mountain of enslavement". I am glad Woo finally returned to his homeland, I wasn't expecting anything worthwhile from him again.

I haven't seen the edited Western version but both of the original movies are fantastic. The set design is spot on, the characters look great and an epic plot is conveyed within a short period of time. Some of the CGI is poor but it's still remarkable to watch. Zhuge Liang is cunning, Cao Cao is a great villain, and the Wu characters are certainly interesting. The battles speak for themselves. If I hadn't known much about Romance Of The Three Kingdoms then I'm not sure if I'd enjoy it as much.

A marvelous thing to watch, with some fascinating battle scenes.

Absolutely fantastic. As far as epic movies go this is as good as it gets. Very character driven, the action scenes are exhausting and the acting is top class. Thankfully the plot's not too complicated to follow, as John Woo's direction guides you al...(read more) ong nicely. Can't wait for part two