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Sometimes it's just
a huge mistake waiting to see movies that have been heaped with praise,
accolades and awards. I heard nothing but wonderful things about this
movie before seeing it in the theater. I saw it win Oscars, Golden
Globes and every other award out there. I heard people tell me about
the amazing fight scenes, the great love story and the wonderful direction.
I must say that I was a little disappointed. Yes, it was beautiful.
Yes, there were some amazing fight scenes. Yes, Ang Lee did a commendable
job. My only sore point is that nobody bothered to notice how stilted
and corny the dialogue was. Granted, I'm sure a lot of things were
lost in the translation, but maybe they needed to hire a better translator--or
maybe a better screenwriter. Films that are adapted from books are
usually stronger on dialogue, being that they are taken from literary
sources, but this one seems to fall flat. If this was an American
movie, and the lead characters were spouting some of the drivel that
came across the screen, we would laugh at its cheesiness. I know the
movie is supposed to be mystical, and is a study of a different culture,
but that doesn't excuse the lack of actual emotion and heartfelt dialogue.
I know people will disagree with me on that, so I'll get off it. Aside
from this one shortcoming, the film was very cool. I heard different
people and critics complain about how unrealistic it was, with all
the flying and stuff. This is one place where the mystical, fairytale
quality of the film completely justifies the lack of gravity and common
sense. I don't remember anyone complaining about a talking lion in
The Wizard if Oz. I honestly can't critique Yun-Fat Chow's
(Chow Yun-Fat) or Michelle Yeoh's performances. I have no idea if
they were doing a good job with their dialogue or not. I have read
that her Mandarin accent was bad and his Mandarin pronunciation was
laughable, but this is obviously not what audiences seem to concentrate
on (think of Costner's "English" accent in Robin Hood or
New Orleans accent in JFK.) Of course, she could be speaking
Thai, and I would have no clue. Anyway, the strongest part of the
movie was definitely the fight scene between Yeoh's character and
that of Jen. It's fun to see two women fly around smashing things.
I'm surprised Americans liked the movie as much as they did, considering
the very unHollywood-like ending. I am always happy when something
not completely mainstream does well. Now if I could just get people
to start listening to The Get Up Kids. [movie theater]
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