(I'm refering to some parts of the story, but I don't think it will spoil anything.)

I was supposed to watch one of the three movies: The mermaid, Monster Hunt or Dragon Blade. I watched trailers for all of them and the first two seemed kind of ridiculous, so I went with the third one. The story seemed interesting and well, Adrien Brody.

Now I think that it may have been a mistake.

The story is good, but the way that they’ve made it was awful. The friendship between different races and Chinese minorities (because yeah 36 ethnic nations, you mean 56 current minorities in China right?) was just… Well done, Chinese government. I mean the whole “peace between nations” is very noble, but they did it in a way I could not appreciate it. A Romans attack the city and suddenly everyone becomes best friends, because there is a sick child and sandstorm is coming (don’t even get me started on how annoying the child was). The scene when they are rebuilding the city together peacefully, the happiness and laughing all around, helping each other out, but just a moment earlier they were jumping each other’s throats was ridiculous. I mean, that was a beautiful world of friendship and cooperation, but it was so exaggerated that it was very hard to watch.

This movie is a beautiful example of American-Chinese production, we have Jackie Chan, everyone knows Jackie Chan. And then we have John Cusack and Adrien Brody, yes, what an amazing actors. They even gave us Super Junior’s Siwon! The cast only is something that makes you think “I want to see that movie”. And then you get… this.

I really liked two scenes. The first, when Huo An is fighting with Cold Moon was really good, excellent choreography. Overall the fighting scenes were well done. The second scene was when Huo An was talking with Lucius, during the night. The moment when Lucius takes Huo An’s sword to see it, I really liked how they both were handling the sword, they moves were very smooth and for me, very elegant.

The movie tried to make us reflect about peace, equality, lust for power and loyalty, but it was too exaggerated. The idea for the story was okay and the acting was on point. I don't really remember the music, except the song sang by Jackie Chan, which was quite pleasant. And rewatching value? Good fighting scenes, but that's it.

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