How sad is this?

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I've started discovering Asian cinematography only a few years a go, and as the time passes, it gets more and more interesting. And so, there I was watching "The Banquet", a rather strange mix of drama, horror and history. With the first glimpses of splattering blood, I got the impression this wouldn't be much more than a modern and overvalued martial arts thing, but somehow, it evolved and overcame the shallow nature of CGI and fake blood which are more or less predominant in "The Banquet". First thing to notice is naturally the technical aspect of the film. The frame is very good, professional to be more precise, and it is quite obvious we're talking about a costly project, which is done in a proper way. But the thing which made me stay and follow until the end was a touch of history, combined with a dramatic twist. The story resembles Shakespeare's "Hamlet" quite some, and frankly I'm not sure whether this is a rip off or a genuine Chinese tale. Whatever the answer is, it looks convincing, although probably historically inaccurate. Power has ever been associated with jealousy, envy and betrayal. Still, the most touching part of "The Banquet" was neither the visual or the narrative aspect, but a most intriguing display of Chinese theater. Now, I honestly don't know whether this is a true depreciation, but the white masked performance left a deepest impression on me, particularly in it's last scene where Qing Nu performs in front of the emperor. Did I like it? I guess that is that could be said, though I'm not sure whether this referres to the whole movie, or just some bits. One thing is for sure - I will investigate further the white mask theatrical performance.

this film is beautiful to look at. Scenery is great, the way the scenes are set up, the colours and the lighting are fantastic. Even the actors are beautiful to look at - Zhang Zhi Yi is at her sensual best.The story did have some interesting twists but not too many which is why some on here are complaining it's not 'complex' or 'layered' enough. But compared to a regular Hollywood film and this one is much better.The acting is uneven. Daniel Wu had a tough time adding any depth to his morose character. I guess he's the Chinese version of Hayden Christenson. Zhang Zhi Yi really shines as does Zhou Xun. Ge You also plays the usurping emperor with passion and adds a bit of humanity to him - he's not just an evil bad guy to be hated.8/10

If I mention what this film's about you may be intrigued/interested enough to watch it, so I'll pass. I don't like to write reviews here, rather make comments on films when in the mood for doing so. My rating system's simple: if it's so bad I have to turn it off, a 1 is given... only a couple of films I've managed to sit through have received a 1 and that was thoroughly deserved; The Banquet gets a 2 because I'm feeling generous.Moving on though, the two female leads hammed it up unashamed, Daniel Wu was so wooden he may as well have been the mask he wore with a computer-generated voice and his character was so passive and plain crap, it defies belief that it was the central role in this film. Or maybe it's just? Actually, thinking about how bad his character was, perhaps it was the actor's intention to portray him so?Anyway, any film which is confused enough to want to believe it's theatre isn't going to go down well with me and that was my main complaint with this bag of shite. I kept hoping that the crowned prince would give it to a hundred soldiers at the end in order to get through to his uncle, his face thick with blood like a mask of vengeance, but no, this is the same man who held his breath for ten minutes so that everyone else in his theatre troupe could be slaughtered while he hid and watched.In a nutshell: badly written, horribly acted, gay cinematics with very annoying characters, awful dancing and far too long. Does having two great-looking girls and a bit of wire-fu make for a good film? Hell, no... it does, however, possibly spare this offensively bad, pretentious, steaming pile of dog crap from a 1.

A 4th generation martial arts film in the Crouching Tiger style, with a surprise that took me a while to realize. It is a retelling of a quintessential tale of envy, betrayal, murder, doubt, revenge, and unexpected consequences; in a word Shakespeare's Hamlet. There are numerous changes, generally of reasonable artistic license, for example the fair and innocent Ophelia character no longer has her well worn emotionally deranged scenes after being jilted harshly by Prince Hamlet, just anguish, then dieing in a different manner. The Prince is not at university, but acting school, practicing his craft in a fabulous open air theatre in the woods with a giant slide in the center of the stage; not very practical for a theatre, but excellent for a dramatic assassination attempt that is staged there. The queen has the largest rewrite, portraying her nearly sympathetically; originally a childhood playmate of Hamlet, she becomes the Prince's mother by marriage which obviates some of the awkward intimate scenes (though probably not awkward originally). It is filial love that conflicts her as she realizes the King plans to kill him and this turns her finally against the King. Yet with these many changes and more, from the King's brother assassinating him for his wife, to the final corpse strewn stage of woe, it is without a doubt, Hamlet. Like Crouching Tiger and House of Flying Daggers, it departs from true fight films, and melds martial arts, dance, and acrobatics; here most elegantly in a scene between the queen and Prince, as they practice one of their childhood Kata, an exercise to perfect their sword handling technique. Filmed in slow motion, the swirl of the huge sleeves and tails of their gowns and the flash of the swords truly weds martial arts & dance. It is not surprising that one of today's innovative & talented young directors took a shot at one of literature's great stories, but though this is likely to register disagreement, in truth the martial arts were a distraction rather than an enhancement. Hamlet is full of physical action and sword play, but most of it is an explosive accent, usually with unexpected consequences, the sword play more a means to an end. Though beautiful and thrilling, the martial arts in Scorpion have suffer mission bloat, swelling from a single hasty stab, into a 12 man major engagement on several occasions. You begin wondering when the next big fight scene is, instead of when will Hamlet end his anguished debate and strike for himself and for justice. I would offer Throne of Blood/ Macbeth and Ran/ King Lear, as examples of two Asian adaptations of Shakespeare where the new setting does not distract from the essential dramatic action.