A kind of a throwback with characters that may remind you of Shaw Brothers movies. So it tries to combine the old with some new stuff. Especially the fact that this was filmed in English may alienate some people. But overall I do believe it works. It does have a returning Michelle Yeoh (ageless) who is great in this too. In addition we get Donnie Yen and his craftsmanship.The action choreography is good and there is flying again (so if you didn't like the first one or thought it was ridiculous and "unreal", don't watch this either). The story is simple and while Yeoh's character admits that at one point, she almost redacts her point entirely at the end. Some may say she changed her mind. Whatever it is, the movie is more than decent enough, while never reaching the heights of the original (no pun intended).

Not a masterpiece like the first, but a solid movie. It lacks the magic elegance of Ang Lee's film, but, although the original language is English, it feels somehow more authentically Chinese.In a world were evil is real and eternal, an unavoidable aspect of human destiny, the baddies are more than caricatures, tragic figures themselves. I may add that I have a feeble for Asian "femmes fatales", so that the duo Blind Enchantress (Eugenia Yuan) and Mantis (Veronica Ngo) proved irresistible.Add to that a couple of technically memorable fight scenes, some good jokes and the movie, despite its recurrent clumsiness, raises unmistakably above mediocrity.

Netflix strikes again! This time they chose to ruin the memory of a the 16 year old classic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with a sequel that shines in being utterly boring. The film is only 100 mins long but it seems to last so much longer. The story is poorly constructed and there so little happening that halfway through the movie I hardly knew what is was about. Something about the titular sword, but it seems so unfocused and aimless. You never have the sense that the story is going anywhere or that the characters have some clear purpose. Also the characters are dull and the dialogue utterly uninspired. They did an effort to make it look good but strangely enough this film looks like a TV movie (well it actually is) that has this strong 'shot in a studio' look (much like War Horse for example). I didn't check the director before watching it but was very surprised Woo-Ping (action choreographer Matrix films) was at the wheel. So the action should at least be good right? Wrong, the fight scenes are slow and dull, not fast and furious. So I would recommend to skip this film entirely, certainly if you liked the original and want to keep your memory of it intact.

Obviously this film is different from the first one in many ways. It has its positive and negative qualities. As a sequel, it lacks the impressive feel, mood, and production style of Ang Lee.But I really like this movie. My least favorite viewing was the first. It's grown on me. The Kung Fu is superb, in several ways superior to the first movie IMHO. I don't know if it's CGI, or just better techniques, but all of the gravity-defying "light body" maneuvers in this movie are miles ahead of what I've seen in other movies. Compared to something like Iron Monkey or the first Crouching Tiger, this movie is downright realistic in the way people fly all over the place. For example, Donnie Yen's fighting entrance where he flies into the scene and lands looks absolutely amazing. The movie is full of this and it's fantastic to watch. There are multiple flying scenes in the first Crouching Tiger than make me wince every time.I'm a big Donnie Yen fan and he was perfect for this role. With Michelle Yeoh, you really can't ask for better actors in a kung fu film. With Woo-Ping Yuen and company you have some of the best kung fu filmmakers in history, and it shows.Something about the story, writing, and feel don't work perfectly for me, which prevents me from rating it higher. But I'm going to watch this movie a lot, and I've already fallen for it.Personally I'd beg for more movies like this. I don't even need them in English, subtitles are fine.