The Warlords (2017)

Director: Peter Ho-Sun Chan

Starring: Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro

Lavish historical action film telling the story of a trio of warriors in the era of the Qing Dynasty – General Ma Xinyi (Jet Li), Cao Er-Hu (Andy Lau) and Zhang Wen-Xiang (Takeshi Kaneshiro) – who make a pact of brotherhood to one another vowing that anyone who harms one of the brothers will be killed. When the country is plunged into chaos and political upheaval following the Taiping Rebellion, the three blood brothers must struggle to maintain their loyalty as war rages around them.

‘The Warlords’ is a good film. Not great as expected. Not excellent as I had hoped. From the onset the film felt dated, although some of the battle scenes are absolutely fantastic.

The first half of the film is exciting and action-packed, with some incredible action sequences. Pity then that the film became over-complicated, confusing and far too political during the second half, and towards the end. It also became much slower moving with too much (political) talk.

The film also forces a romance interest into an already crammed premise. There honestly was no need for the Liansheng character in the movie and she didn’t really contribute much either. On the contrary, the character ruined some of the interesting moments and – as mentioned – only further complicated the film.

Although ‘The Warlords’ is an incredible production, it won’t go down as one of my favorites, or most memorable films. I must mention Jet Li was very good in this film, in a very different role to what we’re used to.

In Mandarin

‘The Warlords’ won several awards, including Best Visual Effects, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction.

Would I watch it again? No.