First lets analyze what exactly this film is made of. Basically, the
whole thing is just one epic fighting scene after another. Most
noticeably is the camera work and the visual effects. Every shot seems
like it was intended to be a work of art. The colors, the characters,
the costumes, the backgrounds... every little detail has been given so
much attention. During the big fights you'll also instantly notice the
unique editing. There are a lot of "time slowdowns" throughout the
battles which show what exactly is happening. Fatal wounds that slowly
leak blood spatters in the air, decapitated heads traveling in
slow-motion across the screen... it's all there. The story on the other hand isn't very complicated, in the sense that
the whole movie could probably be described in a sentence or two. The
dialogs are simple and most often talk about moral values like freedom
and honor. If you would look at the script, it would probably look like
another movie that has nothing more to offer then idealistic visions of
how life should be.Reviewers of this title seem to be split up in two groups. They either
love it with passion calling it an epic movie of the 21th century, or
hate it even more and throw it off like a piece of garbage consisting
of mindless action and silly cliché phrases. I feel reluctant to take a
position in this argument. Normally it's tolerable to weigh out both
sides of this matter to result in a fair judgment about a movie. Not in
this one. On the one hand the visual are surely among the best to be
witnessed in a movie. Every detail, every background, every special
effect set to the scenes are so mindblowingly stunning. On the other
hand the plot and dialogs are of the most simplistic and quite frankly
dumb kind. "I fight for freedom! I'd rather die in honor then live in
shame!" Sounds familiar?
Angela Becerra Vidergar on 02 Sep 10Over the last twenty years or so comic books and video games have been adapted in to movies. Novels have been adapted into comic books. Many of these products have been licensed as toys. Indeed two Singaporeans are actively engaged in such adaptations: Sonny Liew is working on a comic book version of Jane Austin's novel Sense and Sensibility for Marvel Comics, and Eric Khoo is doing a film adaptation of Yoshihiro Tatsumi comic A Drifting Life. Increasing there are convergences between media forms and products. This conference held in conjunction with the Singapore Toys, Games and Comics Convention examines the issues involved in these developments from a scholarly perspective with a focus on Asia.