The Lost Bladesman

The movie is visually stunning and the story is a complex one. Wen Jiang did well with his role even though I felt that he was underutilized. Donnie Yen did pretty good with the more dramatic role but I felt he was a bit out of his depth. No one else in the movie really left an impression and that's actually part of the problem here. The direction for the movie was lacking, most scenes don't flow well together and it feels very episodic. The actors were able to convey any real emotion because it seemed they were relegated to speaking monologues at each other instead of playing off of one another. The martial arts was also a bit of a let down as the movements seemed slow but the camera movement was frantic which made it hard to appreciate the fight and at times it was too hard to tell what was going on. This was a good movie but far from great which is a shame since it had a lot going for it.