Overrated

Good concept, poorly executed.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Set in China in the 1860s, during the Taiping Rebellion. Loosely based on three real warlords, who raised an army to fight against this rebellion and in the process restored the rule of the Qing Dynasty.Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro play the leads here as the three warlords, who come from different walks of life, but who through the atrocities of war are brought together and end up swearing a blood oath of brotherhood, to stick together and end the war on their terms. The movie very heavily rests on their shoulders and they do not disappoint. The best scenes in this film are those where all three of them face one another, either in unison or in conflict.Unfortunately the script is somewhat lacking. These three actors could handle heavier stuff, but the dialogue they're given, especially in these situations they're set in, don't quite reach the level of greatness they perhaps could.The film also looks oddly drab. I guess they wanted to go for a more realistic style, compared to more usual outlandish Chinese historical films, but it still comes off as planned because now everyone is dressed universally in black, which looks outlandish as well, just in a very different way.To the film's credit, I say that the group battle scenes are really good looking. Some of the best I've seen in years. Although, on the flip side, the individual battles are jerky messes. Especially considering that you had Jet Li as the main character!Still, it is definitely a film worth checking out if you're into Chinese period war films.

By 1861, the Christian Taiping Rebellion from its capital Nanking has conquered half of Imperial China. The corrupt Ching court orders General Pang Qingyun (Jet Li) to join with General Ho in an attack on the rebels. General Ho is a corrupt powerful leader. He withdraws his forces and lets Pang's men be massacred. Pang escapes by pretending to be dead. Jiang Wuyang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Zhao Erhu (Andy Lau) leads a local militia. Zhao Erhu is unwilling to take in Pang and then General Ho's men confiscate provisions from them. The three men join in a blood oath to lead a loyalist militia to battle the rebels all the way to Nanking. Qingyun has an affair with Erhu's wife Liansheng laying the seed for their destruction by Ho and the corrupt court.There are tons of rooting interest problems. There is a main villain in Ho and a bunch of little villains in the court. Yet the three heroes never fight against them. They fight rebels who are perfectly honorable, by the movie's own notions. In fact, the Taiping commander does the most selfless act in the entire movie. This makes the big battles not much fun. The audience is forced to root for commanders working for Darth Vader. This is essentially a Greek tragedy and the movie should know that. It tries to be an action adventure war movie and that only highlights its tonal problems. Jet Li's character is terribly flawed in so many ways. This should be Shakespearian, not Michael Bay.

I couldn't finish this film and perhaps, for that reason, you should take my review with a grain of salt. But I feel strongly enough about it to write something anyway.The production values on this film are quite good - cinematography, acting, sets, action scenes, are all well done. The problem is that the story makes no sense and the politics are bizarre, to say the least.A general gets up from the battlefield. He has survived a massacre by playing dead - a premise that is made less and less credible by his heroic performance later on. He joins a group of bandits, killing some poor prisoner whom he knows nothing about in order to prove his loyalty to the other chieftains. He convinces the bandits to join the Ching army to fight against the Taiping, who are in revolt against the government because they (the bandits) can get food and money that way. They ambush a Taiping supply convoy and then offers a deal to the government army. He will take a city for them from the Taiping if they give him half the spoils. So far, so good. A man with no morals joins the bandits and, with them, becomes a mercenary soldier for a corrupt government. He plans to take a city, sack it, loot it, and keep the profits. It doesn't fit the fairly decent image created for the hero, but at least it's consistent.But then the film makers try to make this man into a genuine hero. He leads his forces selflessly into battle against Taiping soldiers - portrayed not as the ragtag peasant revolutionaries fighting with farm implements and having a religious motivation, as they actually were, but as a disciplined army with uniforms, officers, and rifles. He prepares to sacrifice his life to fight them.By great heroics, he wins the battle, ignoring the spear that has thrust all the way through his chest, and takes the city. The spear has magically disappeared and our hero seems unaffected by the wound. Then, amazingly, he orders the execution of two soldiers in his own army for raping women in the city! He says he is serving a higher purpose and will not allow that kind of stuff to ever happen again.Huh? Where did these scruples come from? He's just massacred an army for no reason other than pay. He's just fought for a corrupt government that is subservient to foreign interests and the interests of the rich landlords in the regions. He has just taken a city and, presumably, sacked it. He leaves the city with chests full of silver coins.I don't know what the Chinese writers, directors, and censors were thinking when they made this film. One is tempted to conclude that, however coherent the story might have been when originally written, it was bowdlerized to support the government above all and pretend that supporting the government is a good thing for everyone, even if it's corrupt.It was hard to take. I couldn't take it. Mao must be rolling over in his grave.

Chinese cinema at the moment have focused on epic, films set in the past and have become big business, not just in China, but around the world. Chinese cinema has more money in it now, getting bigger stars and having more money for special effects. It is getting better all the time, and challenging their Asian neighbours, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.The Warlords is set in middle of 19th Century. China is in the middle of the Civil War between the Imperial forces and the Taiping Rebels. The film tells the story of three blood brothers, Pang Qing-Yun (Jet Li), Zhao Er-Hu (Andy Lau) and Jiang Wu-Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), who end up forming an army for the Imperial Chinese government. Qing-Yun was a proved general but he was the only survivor of his army after his so-called ally refused to help in a battle. He forms a partnership with the two brothers, Er-Hu and Wu-Yan who are bandits and convinces them to fight for the imperial government. Their army proves to be successful on the battlefield, and Qing-Yun passes on his military philosophies. But the brothers have to content with military politics with a Imperial government that does not like them, and their relationship soars.The film is directed by Peter Chan Ho-Sun, a man who made his reputation as second-unit director, working on films like Hero and House of Flying Daggers. Here he steps up to the director's chair, doing a good job. He plays to his strengths, which is action. The film has strong battle scenes and some kung-fu fights. But as well as action, Chan also focus on the characters, the emotion and politics of the war. The film focuses on political conflicts and the emotional and philosophical divide between Qing-Yun and Er-Hu. Chan knows what he is doing and was not out of his depth.They is a strong cast, with three of China's biggest actors in film. Jet Li is famous for his skills as a material artist, rather then as an actor, but in this film he proves his acting talents with this film. He is a strong actor in this film, doing more then just material arts. Jet Li also give his character depth, mixing both good and evil elements to him. Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro are more established as actors, but also not so well known in the West. Both are good in this film and work well with Jet Li.If you like action films and epics you will enjoy this film. However a little criticism is with the script where it makes out that the rebels properly were the better side to join. But I did enjoy the mix picture it set out instead of a black-and-white world in the rubbish Braveheart. The film is also lacking a real female lead and doesn't play on the love triangle it sets up early in the film. The film does have strong elements involving action, but also about military politics and battlefield ethics.Solid entertainment.