Review of Shadow

Okay, let's straighten things out first about what kind of movie this is. It isn't a martial arts movie, even though the trailer seems to sell it as one. It's a drama, with some double-cross style, court intrigue, with a couple of training scenes, and then a lackluster battle scene. My main problem with this film, other than it being really slow, and then feeling like the last 20 minutes is a rush job, is that you don't feel any empathy for ANY of the characters. You have no one to root for, it doesn't matter who comes out on top in the end, there isn't any character development to make you want to see a 'happy ending'. Visually, the movie is interesting, with the muted color palette, with the exception of skin tone and blood, although in one scene, the title character appeared to be coughing up oil instead of blood, even though we see blood everywhere else?! The transitions between some scenes were poorly done, one minute the characters are doing one thing, then suddenly it jumps to something else. A good director will put something in between to show the change in time/scene, but it just jumped, and made following what was going on, a bit confusing. And what was the purpose of having the Princess join in on the fight? We don't know of her fighting background, she secretly snuck into the boat, so when did she have time to practise the new umbrella weapon?!! And how did they swim carrying all that iron lol. I mean, they had two umbrellas each (the second ones apparently to use as a slide down a city street, which was ridiculous); and they had wrist sized crossbows which apparently could fire off an arrow with a force that penetrated armor. And this Princess, who we don't know had any fighting skill, managed to fight almost to the end with a highly skilled Yang fighter. Everything else that happens after that climactic battle scene feels rushed and silly, the movie just keeps revealing twist after twist after twist. Really lame. I think this movie could have been better if it spread out some of the fighting throughout the movie, instead of spend a dull 1.5hrs setting up for a big duel, that ended up only being a footnote to ultimately how the movie ends.