Movie Review - The Warlords

3.5 / 5 Stars


The movie starts out with a first-person view of a battlefield. You would feel like you are right smack in the middle of it. Blood and gore is evident, many soldiers get hacked and butchered from both sides and you can hear gasps from the crowd as they are shown the near-reality of a 19th century battle in China. After a few mins of that, the camera dims and shots of the aftermath of the battle are shown. Jet-li rises out from the bodies of soldiers, utterly shocked and disappointed at himself as his men lay dead around him. At the same time feeling pissed off as he realises he was betrayed(you will learn why later on in the movie). Somehow he manages to walk away from that and walks alone. He falls on his journey to somewhere only to be helped by a women who cared for him and nursed him to health. The girl slept with him in the night and they had a night of romance in a shady rundown house. He awakes the next day finding her gone.

So that's the initial part of the movie. Watch it to see more!

The movie had pretty good battle scenes. You will actually see the war being fought in like a post-medieval kind of battle with guns and arrows. It was the 19th century anyway. Jet-li plays as a deserted General who longs to fight against those who betrayed him. Along the movie, he meets Takeshi Kaneshiro whom he had a small fight with after Takeshi tried to beat him up. Jet Li wins the fight and Takeshi brings him to see his Big Brother, Andy Lau, a leader of bandits.

The movie has a pretty intriguing story of love and lust. Death and destruction. Peace and brotherhood. But apart from that, the part that wasn't to my liking is the serious speeches that sounded really funny. You'd have to watch it to understand what I mean. The dialogue could have been improved and the jokes more funnier.

What I like about the movie though, apart from the battle scenes, is the politics behind it. The three of them made an oath of brotherhood, but each had a different viewpoint. Takeshi was into the Brotherhood, Jet Li was into Honour and Glory, Andy Lau was into fighting for the People.

Although all of them were fighting for their own personal causes, each clashed as differences became apparent. The three of them became almost disagreeable but at the same time they needed each other because only through the help of one another can all of them reach their personal cause. This was taken advantage by the evil minds of the Imperial court 'ministers' who tried to get them to kill one another.

Overall the plot was pretty good so are the fighting scenes, just that the dialogue could have been better.