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While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

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

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.

Set in the nineteenth century when civil war plagues China one man Pang Qingyun, survives an overwhelming rout after a supposedly allied army stands by and does nothing. After the battle he is taken to a bandit village which is soon attacked by the very army that stood by earlier. He persuades the village leader, Zhao Er-Hu, and his brother to join an army and fight for the people. At first things go well for them and they are successful; they also stand for justice; then they decide that the city of Suzhou must be taken before going on to take Nanking. They think it will take three years but it is five years before Suzhou falls and when it does they are low on food and a rival army is already heading towards Nanking. Pang orders the execution of four thousand captured soldiers even though Ur-Hu promised that they would be spared if the city surrendered. They continue and take Nanking but their friendship is over and Pang is given the governorship of the city by the Empress. The problem is other lords want him to get rid of Er-Hu first.I hadn't heard of this film before seeing it advertised on television; I decided to watch it as I assumed it would be similar to other Chinese films I'd seen such as 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' or 'Hero'; I was wrong about that as the action here was far more realistic; no running up walls or flying across the roof tops here. The battle scenes were still very dramatic though and there was a degree of stylised choreography in the fighting which added to the excitement. I thought actors Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro did good jobs although not speaking Mandarin I can't comment on their accents! While I wouldn't call this a must see film it wasn't bad and is worth watching on television.

Ever since Hollywood fumbled several golden opportunities to capitalize on the success of Gladiator and revive the fortunes of the historical epic in the West, it's good to see Asian cinema taking up the ball and running with it so effectively. And it's a testament to the scope of what's on offer these days that a film like The Warlords is in the middle of the pack.There are several things The Warlords does right: 1. It restricts the scope of its story, keeping a tight focus on the three heroes, their struggles with circumstance and with enemies that include the conniving Mandarins of the Qing court and the soldiers-of-fortune they favor. The Warlords doesn't try to deliver a history lesson on the incredibly complex topic of the Taiping Rebellion, and establishes the Taipings themselves in subtle, minimal strokes; it's nice if you know the history behind their long locks and crucifixes, but you don't need to know it to understand the flow of the film. What's in frame is what we need to know: the desperation that drove many to take up arms in the China of the day, the shocking straits the Imperial forces had been reduced to, and the kind of inspiration, improvisation and daring it took on the battlefield to bring the Dynasty back from the brink of oblivion.2. It keeps the action varied. No wire-work, thank God, and the battle scenes are gritty, dirty and bloody. We do get treated to some awe-inspiring set pieces, a couple of classic Jet Li throwdowns, and a surprisingly vivid and memorable death scene by a Taiping general that sets the stage for a fatal breach among the trio of sworn brothers. War can become mind-numbing and repetitive, but the film doesn't.3. It doesn't get schmaltzy. There's a romantic subplot, but the filmmakers resist the temptation to let it take over the proceedings and play it out subtly in a succession of guilty glances and stolen moments. The focus is, as it should be, on the the three brothers and especially General Pang as they struggle to adapt to chaotic events and stay afloat in the stormy waters of war and court politics. And when the love triangle does come into play, it does so in an unexpected way.The Warlord's plot is serviceable and engaging, if nothing fancy. That the three brothers are headed for a falling-out is obvious even before they take their blood oath, but the path of that falling-out isn't predictable. In terms of dialogue, there's nothing mind-blowing and nothing intolerably bad. Performances are excellent, and in particular all three of the leading actors deliver in spades. It makes for worthwhile and enjoyable viewing.

Joint Chinese-Hong Kong venture The Warlords is a somewhat troubled but additionally somewhat interesting account of the relationship between three men, told amidst the backdrop of something far grander, that is the true event of an allusive and mysterious murder that happened in China, in 1870. Rather than have an opinion of or make a statement on these events; it is more a study of power play and control, and how with so much at stake and so many at one's disposal, things can quite feasibly fall drastically apart if trust and loyalty between those within the higher-ups isn't prominent. Alas, the film sounds more interesting than it is; providing us with a collection of interesting ideas and themes but placing them in scenes that feel mechanical and obligatory as everything plays out to the conclusion.For all the sense of scope and the sheer grandness behind it, what with the hundreds of extras and the vast, open settings; the fact of the matter that The Warlords essentially boils down to the link between these three male individuals, and one additional female, is quite extraordinary. There might even be an argument that the film makes for a better romance picture, and by the end is more interested in the destructive nature of love than lust for power and control over territories. The three men predominantly involved are Zhang Wen-Xiang (Kaneshiro); Zhao Er-Hu (Lau) and Pang Qingyun, who is played by Jet Li. The film thrusts us into the the forefront of Qing Dynasty China, with a nasty; sweaty; bloody battle coming to an end in which Jet Li's character General stumbles away as the sole survivor of his forces following the dishonourable act of pretending to have been killed so as to avoid further fighting. From here, a certain female by name of Lian (Xu) is introduced, as are the other two mentioned warriors; both of whom are happy to join Pang's military connections when it appears all is lost for the clan-come-townspeople they live with following a raid which leaves them starving and in bad shape. As one observes: "Better dead than this life". Over the course of The Warlords, these four characters' will have their lives transformed as they venture, interact and conquer with one another.But it's frustrating how the film doesn't seem to seal the deal with aplomb. The new recruits are pretty content with their new roles as sword wielding, uniform-clad soldiers whose job it is to seriously injure the opposing force; and there's that sense amongst them that they want to fight and want to push on into battle in order to get that chance. It's here that, indeed maybe for some, the characters' attitudes will echo those of the watching audience who are brought in under the pretense they're initially in for an action film. It's here that The Warlords touches on another dominant aspect, or theme, of the war genre. To pluck a random example out of the air, cast your mind back to 1986's Platoon and how that film's first person retelling of what war was really like got across a sense of not wanting to be there; not wanting the uniform and the weapon and really getting across a sense of terror. The Warlords sees its characters invite the warfare, indeed violence is got across as the only way in which to solve problems in the film.There is also that sense of repetition; that sporadic and unnatural flow of battle scenes inter-cut with visits to the Quing lords for reinforcements as well as a few instances in which the trouble amidst the three lead males is becoming more and more apparent. Sprinkle in a couple of silly proverbs-come-one-liners such as "Dying is easy, living is tough." and the reassurance that "Loyalty is everything." and you have pretty wavy, uneasy passage of scenes. Trouble is, most of the conflict within the higher-ups is moderately interesting at best, with conflict arising over how rapists ought to be punished and whether, in one particularly cold blooded scene, dozens of prisoners of war should be executed. While there isn't much in the way of suspense nor peril during most of the battle scenes; in the sense you don't have the immediate feeling that anyone is in danger; or might get hurt or injured.The film creaks and thuds into its final third, with the character of Lian taking the reins and driving the actions of these men as their antagonism changes from push to shove. The film has been released in various countries with various different levels of distribution over the last couple of calendar years, hitting Asia in late 2007 before gradually crawling across Europe, in certain forms, between the winter of 2008 and into the spring of 2009. In 2010, it'll get its American release and I think it'll do well; what with its overall arc of nobodies or 'underdogs' rising out of their respective shells and attempting to become big fish by taking them on at their own game. I think the casting of Jet Li and the promise of some big battle scenes all blended together with a romance sub-plot which'll form the basis for a love triangle spells good things, financially. It's probably worth seeing, overall, but I did not feel as involved as much as I would have liked.