Wow, such a waste of time. I had to stop in the middle. The actors performed just bad. The characters introduction was a total joke. The costumes looked so fake. There's historical errors in the props. The sound effects weren't convincing. The plot didn't capture me at all. The CGI looked totally laughable. And the soundtrack felt like a copy of Titanic. The English overdub is a total catastrophe.One of the most laughable scene is the sandstorm. They are in the desert, suddenly a huge CGI sandstorm appears out of nowhere. Everybody runs in a circle for 10 seconds. Next cut everything disappeared and a guy is yelling for the others. I've seen high school kids with better dramaturgic talent than what I've seen in this movie.I did like the performance of the many animals in the movie. And the scenery was very watchable. But the rest was getting in the way of enjoying, so only 2 stars.

Reading all the reviews they covered most of the relevant points. The thing about this film it is not a kung fu movie, it's not about demonstrating the great skills of kung fu, so I think it is a bit unfair to compare it to the movie Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon or House Of Flying Daggers. And the characters are not meant to be martial artists but swordsman, which is a totally different skill set. I would compare this more to road movies, because it is more of a road movie, (where characters physical moving through an environment is symbolic of the character's inner change.) If your looking for a movie with amazing battle scenes this is not it. It's a character driven movie, about ethical and moral dilemmas, loyalty and honour and the bonds of brotherhood. For me what blew me out of the water was the acting, it's been a long time since I've seen demeanor acting like that. I don't know if it was perfect casting or perfect directing but the main actors looked completely involved in their character, in the way they moved , the way they walked even just sitting in a chair you'd think that is how that character would sit in the chair. They got all the nuances right never once you thought that's the actor coming through. Been a long time since I've seen acting that particular. My only real gripe, is if you are going to get a Japanese actor to play the Japanese character, couldn't you get Turks to play Turks? Or at least someone more passable for Turkish because Chinese looks nothing like Turkish.

There is only one word to describe this movie, dull. Dull plot, dull acting, dull special effects and dull fighting scenes. I saw other highly rating reviews, mostly 10 stars, but after watching it, what a waste of time. Different people has different taste, but this one is definitely not my cup of tea. This movie focuses too much on the characters, but there are nothing exciting about these characters, they are really boring. I should stick to the Xmen, cheesy movies like this one really put me to sleep. It's very disappointing. Anyone who wishes for a better epic movie should consider the 90s "Once Upon a Time in China" or "Fong Sai-Yuk" series if they haven't seen them already.

I really enjoyed this movie.Do not expect "hero" or "house of Daggers" type quality but do expect a ripper of a Chinese B movie.Amazingly charismatic leads in this movie with special mention going to Xueqi Wang and Kiichi Nakai.The action is very good,the fighting choreographic fairly well done without over the top gore or violence and no wire work.What will keep you to the end of this movie is the acting not the action.The basic story is about a Imperial Agent wishing to return home, but first he must bring back or kill a renegade solider.While hunting him down the two are forced to unite for the greater good of a caravan being attacked by bandits.***mild hint of a spoiler here****This was very good up until the end,it took a bit of a supernatural twist.It was like they project ran out of money or steam and they just needed to finish it.Still very very good in-spite of a weakish ending.