Red Cliff: Review By MovieWiz001

Well guys, I finally got to watch John Woo's latest film, "Red Cliff". Nobody said anything about this movie, because they never heard of it. It would take me a while to find somebody, so I just went ahead and bought the DVD. And after that, I saw "The Fighter", being truly amazed by the acting. And now, I watched this and I thought it was pretty epic. I needed to see this movie, because Woo has been out for a while. "Red Cliff" has very well-done battle sequences. Might not look as realistic, but I see how it was planned.

In 208 A.D., in the Han Dinasty of China, the tyrannic and greedy Prime Minster Cao Cao forces the reluctant Emperor Han to declare war against the kingdoms of Liu Bei and Sun Quan in the South of China. Cao Cao heads with a mighty army of one million soldiers and attacks Liu Bei. His advisor and war strategist Zhuge Liang heads to South in a diplomatic mission trying to convince Sun Quan to join force with Liu Bei against the powerful warlord. When Zhuge Liang meets the viceroy Zhou Yu, he succeeds in his assignment with the alliance of the two kingdoms against Cao Cao. The armies fight against each other in many battles until the final one in Red Cliff where guile, knowledge and strategy prevail.

The fight scenes of the film is like another of one of those breaking the laws of gravity, which is my favorite type of fights. These fights are also known in "Hero" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". The ones in here are pretty quick and hard to see. Sometimes I don't know whoever did. I don't even know who is who. But yes, the battles and fights in this movie are very impressive and bloody. And they also have great battle plans and tricks. That's John Woo for yah.

Now I'll tell ya'll something, I watched the film in Mandarin with English subtitles because the american dub cast is horrible. They were making this movie look like a parody. Especially that guy, I forgot his name, but the dubber sounded like he was narrating an action movie trailer, in the cheesy way. When I changed it to Mandarin with English dubs, it was much better. I mean I always liked the dubbed voices because most of what I've seen had a great English cast like "Princess Mononoke". I loved that cast. But if you get the chance to watch "Red Cliff", watch it in Mandarin with Eng. dubs. The acting on here was impressive, not all that great but really good acting.

Now the visual effects were good, but some parts may look pretty fake. In that burning ship battle, the explosions and fires were noticeably not there. But that battle had so many explosions that it would please Michael Bay. I can see John Woo's fast moving camera by zooming in and out, but it does not look to fit its genre. If I were him, I would have it as an anime. It would look much better, to fix the fake looks in here. But it's a nice choice of story. The film is based on the Battle of Red Cliffs (208-209 AD) and events during the end of the Han Dynasty and immediately prior to the period of the Three Kingdoms in ancient China. The sad thing is, the movie is split in two parts in Asia. Which makes the total, 4 hours and 40 minutes. Why can't we have that. In the U.S. it's 2 hours and 18 minutes.. crap! But you will still enjoy this movie.

Since I know John Woo well, he still does his same style in a movie. using epic slow-motions, epic fires, and flying pigeons. I still love that style of John Woo like how I love the style of Michael Bay and Zack Snyder. You can watch a doc*mentary of his early like and career on some DVD or you can watch it on YouTube (Hopefully it's still there). Because he will tell you all about his style and what guns like to put in a film mostly and how much he loves pigeons. the whole thing is found in Crossings: John Woo Doc*mentary.

So yes, this is a really good film, and it's pretty epic. would love to have the original 4hr version, but I still like it. This is your choice on if you want to watch this movie or not. I like John Woo a lot, and if you say the same then watch this. Thanks for reading.

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was a decisive battle at the end of the Han Dynasty, immediately prior to the period of the Three Kingdoms in China. It was fought in the winter of 208/9 AD between the allied forces of the southern warlords Liu Bei and Sun Quan and the numerically superior forces of the northern warlord Cao Cao. Liu Bei and Sun Quan successfully frustrated Cao Cao's effort to conquer the land south of the Yangtze River and reunite the territory of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The allied victory at Red Cliffs ensured the survival of Liu Bei and Sun Quan, gave them control of the Yangtze, and provided a line of defence that was the basis for the later creation of the two southern kingdoms of Shu Han and Eastern Wu.