This film could be so much more emotional and touching if the Chinese communist party is not still ruling the mainland China. The ccp's censors ruined the film. After watching this film, the audiences (especially the young mainland students) will hardly be motivated to pursue for the Three Principles of the People for a better China.For one thing, this is about the founding of Republic of China, (the first democratic republic in the entire Asia), however, the name of "Republic of China" or the Three Principles of the People were hardly ever mentioned, they were probably mentioned for less than ten times throughout the film.In one scene, the subtitle in Chinese and English was "Republic of China", but the dialogue was talking about "revolution". So did the censor ask the filmmakers to change the name of ROC to revolution? No one will know until after the ccp is to be destroyed for good in the future.Jackie chan's voice was dubbed by someone else. That was a good choice, because it made his character more believable. Even though his face looks familiar, but the character he portrayed looked brand new. He wasn't a bad actor in this film even though it is not his regular comedy, action film role.overall, i enjoyed watching it. It could be a much bigger epic film if they didn't have to worry about the CCP's censors. Just like the rest of the mainland Chinese films, they can't make great films, because everything they make must first be approved by the evil CCP censors! Until the day when CCP is overthrown by its people, mainland Chinese filmmakers can never make a great touching film at all. They have all the money, human power, they just don't have the creation freedom.

Every 5 minutes or so, you will get a subtitle pop up (and I'm not talking about the subtitles you have going if you're not fluent in Chinese btw.). And it will either be about some historical occurrence or another character that is being introduced. You have to ask yourself if this fact might annoy you a bit (or a lot). One thing is for sure, the story itself is intriguing.The action scenes are also shot very nicely, the acting is pretty solid and you get a bit of what went down back then in China (more or less that is). It's strange though, because while the situation itself is gripping, the movie itself never really builds that much tension, that it completely grabs you. Didn't work for me at least. Shame because there is quite a lot of potential here ...

The most telling moment. It's nearly an hour into the film, and somewhere in the middle of this incoherent plot Jackie Chan actually slides down a pipe and does a Jackie Chan thing and beats up three assassins. It's like he went nearly a whole movie without doing typical Jackie Chan stuff, and he just couldn't help himself.I'd like to say this wasn't plot relevant, but that would work on the dubious assumption this film had a plot.It talks about the fall of the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty, and frankly, we already did that movie. It was called "The Last Emperor", and it was a vastly better film. This one seems to revel in re-enactments of battles, but doesn't really flesh out the characters too much. The annoying flash cards explaining events and characters (many of whom weren't necessary, really) was really more of a distraction.I think this film is probably more interesting to Chinese Audiences, but I didn't give a darn about any of the characters or how this was going to all turn out. They end the movie on a happy note before Civil and world war and Communist dictatorship. WHich is kind of like Ending Titanic before they hit the Iceberg.I'm going to give it a 2 for period costumes and props.

"1911" is NOT a movie about the Colt .45 semi-automatic Pistol."1911" was the year of a people's revolution in China. Like many modern revolutions (Iran), this one did not end well (Mao - though that was much later).1911 the movie is an historical drama based on the fall of the Qing Dynasty and China's first attempts at becoming a Republic. Jackie Chan co-directed and stars in a supporting role. There is one "Jackie-Chan-class" martial-arts scene, to placate his fans, having little to do with the plot. It involves little screen time, and is barely worth mentioning as fight scene or plot distraction. The camera loves Chan and he the camera. He nicely under-plays his character but has scenes where his familiar face and real acting chops anchor the movie for western audiences."1911" overlaps the time and events of the movie "Last Emperor of China" and spends considerable screen time in the Imperial Court. In "Emperor," we meet PuYi at age 2-3 when he becomes Emperor, then follow him into adulthood and old age. PuYi was a child of 5 in 1911.1911 was a genuine revolution a couple of decades prior to the battles that begat the time of Chairman Mao. If like me, you are barely aware of this period in Chinese History, this movie may give resolve to learn more. I have visited the rather large memorial to Dr Sun Yat-sen in Guangzhou. The Chinese Garden in Vancouver BC is an even larger memorial to him. In addition to political manoeuvrings, the movie is about the mud and the blood and the guts of a revolution. Beautiful young men and women thrown into the meat grinder for the cause of "freedom" - or so they had all hoped. The movie introduces many such young people, then returns to mourn them - brilliantly, I thought.The Qing Dynasty's end involved a couple of women serving as empresses / regents for about 50-60 years. I do not mean to say that it was a cause, only that it was an unusual fact. "1911" showed Empress Dowager Longyu (Xiao Ding Jing / Xizi) as more focused on comfort and fashion that affairs of state. Hard to know how real that was from 100 years later. She would have been 42-43 in 1911 yet the movie shows her as a much younger very beautiful woman (played by Joan Chen). Her beauty is borne out by other reports from earlier in her life, however she passed away in 1913 at 44, and later pictures suggest significant dental problems.PuYi, the "Last Emperor" was elevated to office at age 2 with affairs of state handled by a female Regent. From that day forward, PuYi was considered a living god with grown and powerful men kowtowing to his every whim. Probably bad for the psychological development of a 2 year old to say the least. I thought that 1911 showed this adequately.An Emperor / Empress had total control to manage the affairs of state, and it would be the same for a Regent acting in his or her name. Like root/administrator access on a Linux/Windows Server that can work very well indeed if the administrator knows what s/he is doing. However that level of control can also destroy the system almost as easily through ignorance - or simple bad luck.The political insulation and bureaucratic "plaque" built up for Chinese emperors is difficult to imagine. With occasional changes of dynasty through warfare, the concept of divine royalty had governed China for 2,000 years. Behind high walls and gates, The Forbidden City/palace is nearly 8 million square feet (180 acres). The Vatican is about 3/5th as large, the Kremlin 1/3. It contains nearly 1,000 buildings and nearly 10,000 rooms. 9,000 people lived there to serve the imperial family. Only a select handful were allowed to even see the face of the emperor. If you weren't on that very short list the penalty for viewing his face was... death. Thus in modern dramas, you see high officials putting their faces to the floor when the emperor enters. That is by all accounts, quite real.We know how isolated some of US Presidents have been, especially the bunker mentality of Mr. Nixon or Mr. Johnson late in their time in office; however the isolation from the "(wo)man in the street" of these Presidents is probably less than 1/100th that of the Chinese Imperial Court, due to scale, tradition and technologies.Most of "1911" is in Mandarin with subtitles but you'll hear English where a scene is set in America's Chinatown or an aristocrat's gardens in England. At these garden parties, as European bankers would drink and dine and decide the fates of nations, Dr Sun Yat Sen lobbied them to stop loaning money to the Qing Dynasty. He succeeds, inhibiting their ability to buy weapons and pay soldiers. We also follow Dr. Sun as he travels to raise funds from the Overseas Chinese of America.Dr. Sun declared that he would serve as interim President of China after sufficient battle victories allowed formation of a legislative body, but that he would resign as soon as the Qing Emperor abdicated. This he did. The political reasons and consequences of that decision are a major part of the movie.Worth your time and money in theaters, but if that can't be worked into your schedule, be sure to rent it.Scott-Bob