14 Blades

A very, very generic Donnie Yen vehicle with nothing special to offer except name power. I can't say I'm partial to Yen in the same way that I love The Rock or Arnold, but I know he's done better, he's even done better big dumb action movies.

Donnie Yen provides consistent entertainment but not much in the way of dramatic depth or story. 14 Blades is what you would expect from him but entertaining if you like modern wuxia "pulp" schlock. This film also features some truly over the top gimmick weaponry which is a nice nod to Master of the Flying Guillotine, Blade (1995), and other such films. The choreography is decent but relied a lot on outdated year 2000ish CGI flashy effects. Daniel Lee is still a novice compared to Tsui Hark.

Donnie Yen and the gorgeous Zhao Wei star in this wire-fu swordplay flick which is essentially about a bunch of dudes in the desert all trying to get a hold of the stolen Imperial seal. Plenty of excellent fighting scenes, both hand-to-hand and with an assortment of weapons, and an interesting story with some political intrigue. Some of the weapons are a little gimmicky, and there's a couple of cheap looking CGI shots, but the action in this is awesome.

The story behind 14 Blades is a pretty simple one. Yen is the leader of an elite group of government agents. He is framed during one of his missions and barely manages to escape. He sets out again to finish his mission and to uncover the conspiracy against him. Most of the storytelling is done during the first half of the film, after that there is little time for such silly stories, as the action and acrobatics take center stage.

I really enjoyed this adventure film. Donnie Yen does well in the role of the rigid soldier who carries the air of melancholy. Nearly everyone in the film gives a decent if not a down right good job. Yes there was too much CGI which was poorly done, but it didn't really annoy me too bad the only real complaint I had was the female villain who I didn't like at all. I also was disappointed that Donnie Yen had to die yet again as he seems to do in the majority of his films.

Stylistically this movie is amazing. However, I wish they had left out the ridiculous special effects and silly flying around nonsense. The actual fighting was quite entertaining, and it has some awesome atmosphere. Things like the ghost dancing girl fighter were just awful. I enjoyed it, but there are many roll your eyes special effects that were unnecessary and overblown that subtracts from it greatly. Overall, it was entertaining and has very good production quality.

- 8/29/12

Tracing the steps of Ip Man I wanted to see what other Yen movies look like. 14 blades while benefits from the budget feels superficial all the way. The large eyed damsel in distress, slit eyed sinister bad-ass girl...After all sometimes it boils down to expectations. Made me wanna flip a coin on Samurai Shodown.