By Jason Haskins
There are few movies that come along that leave you out of breath once the credits begin to roll. Hero is one of those great movies that you watch expecting a decent action picture, but finding a wonderful movie instead.
A group of assassins around 2,000 years ago are trying to snuff out the emperor of China, who’s trying to forcefully unite the many provinces under his rule. Told through the eyes of a nameless hero (Jet Li), you embark on a huge journey of action, romance, and many memorable moments.
While the story has been done a little too much in the martial arts genre, Hero is nothing like anything you’ve ever seen before. From the delicate and artsy direction to the masterful choreography of the scenes, you will be taken aback by all of the stunning elements that make Hero so damn pleasing.
The director, Zhang Yimou, is an influential director and practically considered a God in his home country for films like House of Flying Daggers. He’s proven that his movies can come to the United States and become successful foreign films in the way that Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon captivated audiences years ago.
Speaking of that spectacular cinematic experience, many upon many movie buffs I’ve spoken with have compared this film to Ang Lee’s masterpiece. Some fans have even written Hero off as a half-baked attempt at striking gold with a similar movie. I would argue the movies are different in many ways.
Jet Li struck success in the United States with his small part in Lethal Weapon 4 before going on to do other USA movies such as Kiss of the Dragon and Romeo Must Die, but people forget that he’s a martial arts pioneer across the sea. Being the star of Once Upon A Time In China as well as The Defender, he’s made quite a name for himself and with Hero he once again impresses.
The other members of the cast also put forth great performances. Zhang Ziyi (Rush Hour 2), who was also in Crouching Tiger, has a small role in Hero, playing a servant of one of the main characters. Though a small part, she does have a large showdown with the character, Flying Snow, played by Maggie Cheng, who also does a magnificent job in the flick.
One thing that’s not so hot is that the movie was dubbed with English dialogue. I wish they had taken the Crouching Tiger route and made Hero subtitled because everything would have been more believable and they could have avoided some awkward moments. Although this small factor doesn’t disrupt the course of the movie or drag it down any, it’s just a personal thing I wish was implemented in the film(Editor's note- this can be fixed in the dvd menu).
But the one single thing that makes Hero soar is the beautiful cinematography that has to be seen in order to be believed. This is the most impressive reason to watch this movie. Each scene has a certain theme to it representing a color. One scene took place in a desert that had the characters wearing white clothes surrounded by pale sand. Another had everyone in blue. Yet another involved an epic fight scene with Flying Snow wearing red while fighting her servant around yellow-leaved trees with the leaves falling all around them.
These little tidbits are eye candy, but are also so much more. They bring depth to the direction. When you add Yimou’s delightful direction and flowing narrative along with some well-put digitally revamped shots (CGI), you get some great scenes like hordes of arrows being shot at two characters and them chopping them up with swords. It’s not just the dazzling colors either, the lighting is groundbreaking and remarkable with flames dashing off walls and bringing instant color and depth to actors’ faces.
And the heart-stopping action is just dressing on the salad, frosting on the cake. One of the opening scenes has Li dishing it out with the cool Donnie Yen while rain is falling around them. The scenes are delightful because Yimou breaks from the action to film the raindrops hitting the ground. These artful shots are very tastefully done and don’t distract from the movie at all. Plus, in the martial arts parts he films very close to the actors to really get close shots to make you feel like you’re part of the action.
The sad thing is that most people will watch it expecting something entirely different with Jet Li fighting a thousand guys with his bare hands. They won’t expect a solid supporting cast, wonderful cinematography, and artsy fartsy camera shots. While some people nitpicked about these things, I think they raise the film above every other martial arts film precisely because it’s so different and visually pleasing. If you want to have a good time, watch Hero because you will feel very good when the credits start rolling.
Rating System (out of 5)
Acting - 4
Direction - 5
Script - 4
Cinematography - 5
Editing - 4
Overall - 4.5
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