Zu Warriors (2001)

Zu Warriors boasted a heavy hitting cast, Ekin Cheng, Louis Koo, Sammo Hung, Zhang Zi Yi, and Cecilia Cheung. It was directed by Tsui Hark and had Yuen Woo Ping for the martial arts director. They obviously spent a ton of money on the constant CGI and SFX. Yet somehow, this fantasy martial arts film missed out on the one thing required of this type of movie---it should have been fun.

The acting was all serviceable. The problem is that there was no depth to the characters, no moment when we were able to see behind the frozen masks. Everyone was staid and emotionless making it very hard to care about any of them. Ekin Cheng's hair that magically blew in every scene had the most life of any character.

From beginning to end the CGI dominated the movie. Unfortunately, even for 2001, it wasn't very good. The cinematography was awful. The few sets that had any realism were also bad. Even the fight scenes, which did have some interesting moments were too often overpowered by the special effects. Very few scenes were not CGI enhanced which along with the unemotional acting made everything seem distant and cold.

The story had some good ideas and moments. Sadly, too often, it veered into an incoherent mess, seemingly unable to keep up with its own world building and mythology.

If a movie is going to take itself this seriously then it should be well thought out and give us characters to care about. Or it should have the decency to be so bad that it's good. Zu Warriors failed on both counts.

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