I pretty much agreed w/ the reviews of 'A Nutshell Review' and '(lovehkfilm.com)'. I'm a bit less enthusiastic than the latter because of the ending (more on that later), but I do agree w/ him that this is the best John Woo film in the last 10, no, 15, yrs since 'Hard Boiled'.
This is so much better than the 1st part in terms of pacing, story, and dialog that it's not even funny. As a fan of both Woo's HK movies and the novel, I thought there're certain aspects in the story that were handled much better in the movie. For example in the novel, the use of the 33rd stratagem 'Let the enemy's own spy sow discord in the enemy camp' to dispose of Cao Cao's naval generals always comes across as a bit too simplistic; the use of the 34th stratagem 'Inflict injury on one's self to win the enemy's trust' stretches my limit of suspension of disbelief (the reason was explained in the movie), and Zhuge Liang is someone with super-natural powers w/ the ability to change wind directions (as oppose to in the movie where he's just an expert in meteorology).
Sun Shangxiang as a spy in enemy camp did stretched my limit (not because she's female but because of her princess status), but since Zhao Wei's also playing Mulan in a upcoming movie I'll grudgingly accept that for the sake of entertainment. What I couldn't accept was the rushed ending which was handled much better in the novel. Cao Cao should have had more than 2 capable generals at the end to at least stall, if not match the opposition's generals one on one and I would have accepted that, in the melee of trying to save Xiao Qiao, Cao Cao was rushed away by some of his other generals, and that they would not pursue him because after all, it's 50K+ against 800K+ and the victor's would have suffered heavy casualties as well. It was a 9-rating movie up to that point, but since it's Woo's best movie in a while I'll just dock another point.
In conclusion, don't miss this if you're a John Woo fan (of his HK movies).
This is so much better than the 1st part in terms of pacing, story, and dialog that it's not even funny. As a fan of both Woo's HK movies and the novel, I thought there're certain aspects in the story that were handled much better in the movie. For example in the novel, the use of the 33rd stratagem 'Let the enemy's own spy sow discord in the enemy camp' to dispose of Cao Cao's naval generals always comes across as a bit too simplistic; the use of the 34th stratagem 'Inflict injury on one's self to win the enemy's trust' stretches my limit of suspension of disbelief (the reason was explained in the movie), and Zhuge Liang is someone with super-natural powers w/ the ability to change wind directions (as oppose to in the movie where he's just an expert in meteorology).
Sun Shangxiang as a spy in enemy camp did stretched my limit (not because she's female but because of her princess status), but since Zhao Wei's also playing Mulan in a upcoming movie I'll grudgingly accept that for the sake of entertainment. What I couldn't accept was the rushed ending which was handled much better in the novel. Cao Cao should have had more than 2 capable generals at the end to at least stall, if not match the opposition's generals one on one and I would have accepted that, in the melee of trying to save Xiao Qiao, Cao Cao was rushed away by some of his other generals, and that they would not pursue him because after all, it's 50K+ against 800K+ and the victor's would have suffered heavy casualties as well. It was a 9-rating movie up to that point, but since it's Woo's best movie in a while I'll just dock another point.
In conclusion, don't miss this if you're a John Woo fan (of his HK movies).