Red Cliff Part 1

I am an avid fan of the "Romance of Three Kingsdoms", back since the day I bought a Taiwanese comic book about the title.

After watching countless war movies, such as Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, and other English titles, I have been waiting for the day Romance would be shown on the big screen.

As such, when "Red Cliff Part 1" is out, I went to watch it straight away.

However, the movie is a major letdown.

Sure, some of the battle scenes were very intense, such as the part where Zhao Yun went to save Ah Dou.

But, in the last battle of Part 1, the battles involving Zhang Fei and Guan Yu were atrocious, to such an effect that it looks like some kids wrote the script for that.

Instead of using his trusted snake-headed spear, Zhang Fei rushed out to face countless enemies, and resorted to headbutts and punches?

In another scene, Guan Yu threw out his big sword, so that he could fight unarmed, using his enemies' spears instead?

Both of these scenes doesn't make sense, given that any self-respecting martial arts practicer would never leave his/her weapons behind.

Another thing that annoyed me is the dialogue for Xiao Jiao.

Gems such as "You are better than Chao Chao, because he does't have friends" not only pained the ears but also made my hairs stand.

For the main characters, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang, the portrayal is different from the "Romance", which I guess is due to that it is based on the more factual "San Guo Zhi."

Anyway, overall, I would rate this movie at 2/5.

For avid fans of "Romance", avoid this at all costs.

I hope Part 2 will be a lot better. :|