Not a masterpiece like the first, but a solid movie. It lacks the magic elegance of Ang Lee's film, but, although the original language is English, it feels somehow more authentically Chinese.In a world were evil is real and eternal, an unavoidable aspect of human destiny, the baddies are more than caricatures, tragic figures themselves. I may add that I have a feeble for Asian "femmes fatales", so that the duo Blind Enchantress (Eugenia Yuan) and Mantis (Veronica Ngo) proved irresistible.Add to that a couple of technically memorable fight scenes, some good jokes and the movie, despite its recurrent clumsiness, raises unmistakably above mediocrity.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon remains one of the greatest martial arts films ever made. The breath-taking cinematography and graceful fighting sequences led it to become the highest grossing film in a foreign language in North America, helped open up the west to Asian cinema and is quite simply a masterpiece. But sadly The Sword of Destiny seems to capture very little of the beauty that made Crouching Tiger so incredible and instead feels more like an attempt to cash in on the legacy of Ang Lee's original film. Taking place 18 years after the original film, Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) returns to defend the sword Green Destiny once again, this time from the evil Lord Hades (Jason Scott Lee). She is assisted by Silent Wolf (Donnie Yen), her ex fiancé who she believed was dead. Meanwhile a young woman known as Snow Vase (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) who is training under Shu Lien begins to fall for Wei Fang (Harry Shun Jr), a young thief who attempted to steal the sword for Hades. The film rehashes several story beats from the original film but recreates them with far weaker characterisation and lacks the same depth of its predecessor. The only returning cast member from the first film is Michelle Yeoh, who does deliver a good performance by bringing the same wisdom and nobility that she bought to the first film. However every other character suffers from a screenplay that is incapable of doing anything other than filling up time until the next action sequence. The main romance in the film between the two young lovers is never able to create any real chemistry. Even Donnie Yen, one of the greatest Chinese action stars, is unable to do anything with his little screen time and the incredibly bland script other than fight and look stoic. The cinematography mixed with the vast landscapes looks nice at times, but at others the film suffered heavily from an overuse of CGI that feels like a very misguided departure from the natural beauty of the original film. Also instead of being filmed in Mandarin like the original film, the actors instead all speak English. Obviously this is done to appeal to a wider demographic, but it ends up distancing itself even further from the tone of the original film. Out of everyone who could direct a sequel to Crouching Tiger, Woo- Ping Yuen could at first seem like a good choice. He's directed some of the greatest action films from China (including Drunken Master and Iron Monkey) and was even the action choreographer for the original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. And he is able to pull of some great fight sequences throughout the film, including one creative sequence battling along a frozen lake. But as impressive as the fight choreography is, it never recaptures the tone of the original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Whereas the fights in Crouching Tiger played out like a delicate dance through which two warriors communicated, Sword of Destiny is an impressive display of fighting skill and stunt work, but nothing much else. Also whilst Woo-Ping Yuen is quite possibly one of the greatest action directors of all time, his style just wasn't suited here. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon wasn't really an action movie. It was a romantic drama cleverly disguised as a martial arts flick. But Sword of Destiny is instead just an action movie with a weak romantic sub-plot tacked on.

In many ways watching this sequel to the original Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is an experience equal to the original, although the story line is not as convincing or compelling as the original. What's to like are the flawed characters still driven by a profound inner goodness or badness made possible by the time and country in which the story is set. The unique oriental capacity to have human beings perform apparently superhuman feats is, at times, overdone and that is the films main flaw when compared to the first film. And perhaps the linking up of all the set pieces lacks the finesse of the original.However, it is very watchable, well acted, beautifully photographed, and memorable from the very beginning when the breathtaking scenery is caught with such rich outlines, camera angles, and clever technology. All the way through are these rich feasts of panoramas painting an atmosphere which is unique to this genre.I have awarded it seven out of ten, but if I had to judge the film on cinematography alone it would be closer to ten.

If you're looking to enjoy a corny, period-piece kung fu movie that hits the usual notes while offering a few well-choreographed fight scenes in interesting locations, this movie will do just fine. If, however, you were expecting a worthy sequel to the Oscar-winning Ang Lee film, you'll be disappointed.The acting—which is actually done in English this time—is generally mediocre, although it's hard separate it from the writing, which forces the characters to spout movie clichés and Confucian truisms. Michelle Yeoh is back to reprise her role, and happily so; she's the best actor in the film, and her character is the only tether to the original story besides the sword of destiny itself. The other players are new, and their characters can be divided into two categories: 1) generic members of a heroic motley crew, and 2) knockoff versions of people in the first film. In the first category we've got some of the usual suspects coming together to defend the titular sword. Battle-weary middle-aged warrior? Check. Young man who throws knives? Check. Token woman who also throws things? Check. A big strong guy and a self-taught drunken master? Check and Check. Movies that involve assembling a team can be great fun, whether it's The Magnificent Seven or Ocean's Eleven, and sometimes they can even be great cinema, like the original Seven Samurai. But this film does a lazy, perfunctory job of walking you through the steps. The whole crew convenes more-or-less in one place, and they instantly agree to take on the job, almost as if to say "Look, you know the deal right? Do we really have to put any time into it?" We hardly get to know them at all before battles ensue and the credits roll. This is not to say the movie isn't any fun; it's fun, it just isn't particularly good. In the second category, we have clones of characters from the original film: another thwarted-by-fate love interest for Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), another noble lady with secret sword skills and a criminal past, another young ruffian who acts as a (sort of) love interest for the lady. Aside from the redundancy in storytelling, the problem with treading old ground here is that it makes you sorely miss the acting of Chow Yun-Fat and Zhang Ziyi in the original. His implacable Zen smile and her impetuous, resentful glares reverberated off each other delightfully. Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who plays the distractingly-named "Snow Vase," doesn't quite have that talent. The relationship between Yu Shu Lien and Snow Vase peaked my interest, as did Snow Vase's ultimate backstory, but those moments were all too brief. Meanwhile the main villain is dull dull dull. His sword and chest plate are more interesting than he is, and everything we know about him comes only by word-of-mouth. His sorceress-type confederate, described as "the blind enchantress," offers more mystique, but neither one ends up having the personal significance or the flawed humanity of Jade Fox in Ang Lee's movie. And that hot, bloody memory of desert love that interrupts the main story in the first film? There's no counterpart here; it's only caged flirtation between the young warriors. Like all great mythical swords, the Green Destiny becomes a character itself, and in spite of everything, the fan in me was happy to see it appear again with jade appointments and calligraphy on the blade. But the sword is relegated to the background; it's just sort of there. It doesn't help Snow Vase achieve discipline; Silent Wolf never illustrates whatever legendary power it has, and so without a reminder from the first film, you're left wondering why everybody is obsessed with the weapon in the first place. Without the Lady of the Lake and its magical scabbard, Excalibur is just a cool name. So it is with Green Destiny in this movie. All of which makes it even harder to justify having this movie be a sequel instead of just churning out a new film.Gone are the masterful cinematic moments from the original; yes, there are lush landscapes and pretty side-views of caravans trotting through the forest. But these shots owe more to Lord of the Rings than to the first film. (Even one of the most striking fight sequences—a precarious scuffle atop a snow-dusted frozen lake—echoes one of the many endings in the third Hobbit movie.) The battle atop a multi-tiered fortress and the tavern brawl are amusing enough. But there is nothing that tops the hypnotic sway of Li Mu Bai balancing on a bamboo stalk or the fiery endlessness of the desert plateaus that made the first Crouching Tiger more than just an action flick. The soul-aching, mournful violins and the sense of beautiful tragedy in that first film have given way to borderline camp.So all in all, the whole thing feels like a really well-done, unlicensed fan-sequel. Many lovers of martial arts movies are accustomed to hammy acting and plots defined by tropes, so no doubt many viewers will enjoy Sword of Destiny. But one of the virtues of its predecessor was that it brought a wider audience into the fold. It was a small miracle when the first Crouching Tiger arrived in my little hometown, where even Oscar-winning foreign films don't often make it into local theaters. Even if most of the audience showed up hoping to see Asian people dance-fight in an action flick, they were inadvertently exposed to something more. Something artful. But this sequel, whatever its virtues may be, is just another one of the endless middle-of-the-road options on Netflix.