When I first heard about SEVEN SWORDS, I imagined it to be another re-imagining of the classic SEVEN SAMURAI, about a bunch of disparate warriors defending a village from an evil warlord. In essence, this is exactly what the film is, but it bears little resemblance to the Kurosawa classic, and for me that's a good thing. Instead the film chronicles a running battle between seven warriors armed with mystical blades and all the bad guys of an army they're up against. This being a Tsui Hark film, it's got a long running time, is visually sumptuous, and packed with stirring music and top-notch technical values.The actors are all pretty decent in their respective roles. My only complaint is that the film didn't really need seven heroes – they're too many, even despite the long running time, and some of them hardly get a look in (I'm thinking of the bald guy). Donnie Yen headlines the cast and does his usual posturing and fine fighting, and the final battle is pretty much left down to him. There are also some high quality performances from other cast members, notably Honglei Sun's developed villain, Fire-wind, and the girl who played Green Pearl. It's also fun to see Liu Chia-Liang back on screen, looking exactly the same as he did in DRUNKEN MASTER II.The film has a distinctive visual style and Hark seems to have been hugely influenced by the landscapes and costumes of RETURN OF THE KING. That's no bad role model. Especially at this film's beginning, before you get used to it, the colours are amazing, with washed-out, drab grey landscapes and vibrant red banners and costumes. The set design is spot on, and particular attention has been paid to the weaponry. The heroes all have wicked-looking swords, which make noises, act like magnets, and they each have their own unique values; indeed the swords are as much characters as the actors holding them. The bad guys have plenty of wicked-looking weaponry adept at slicing the limbs and heads off the innocent, and as a result this is a fairly graphic film, although Hark plays down the violence by always focusing away on it (we'll see a leg falling on the ground, but not the act of it being chopped off). One of the weapons reminded me of the flying guillotine.Of course, this is primarily an action film, and it delivers action in spades. I'd heard that there was a lagging middle, but I was engaged and entertained throughout. The fights are on a large scale and ably incorporate wire work and standard 'grounded' kung fu, and it's all very enjoyable and hard to take your eyes from the screen. I've always considered Hark's choreography to be a little over-stylised – to the detriment of being able to make out what's happening before your eyes – and that complaint sticks here, but it's a personal issue and most will love the many battle scenes. So, on a final note, this is a massive, expensive and very well made action fantasy that delivers a fitting bland of drama and action.

Seven Swords continues the proud wuxia film tradition by being utterly gorgeous, full of martial arts battles, making little to no sense whatsoever plot-wise, having the actors hamming it out constantly, yet containing subtle philosophies concerning the matter of control versus guidance, the capacity for violence used to protect and vice versa.It's also a rather great adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, borrowing its central plot, but giving it a more mythical approach and style in a true wuxia fashion.The best part of this film are its production values and art style. The whole film look amazing, but is given a bit more grounded style compared to other wuxia films that are usually awash with colours, loud and bombastic with details. There's still extravaganza, but it's darker, more threatening in style. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this are the weapons, both those used by the villains that are more bizarre and outlandish in design, and the actual Seven Swords from Mount Heaven. They straddle that thin line between being interesting and creative and being just functional-looking enough that you can buy them.The story itself is unfortunately nothing special. It contains some really good moments, but also some really bad moments. The fighting and the emotions are genuine and real, but the clichés and melodrama drag the other scenes down. Seven Swords is worth a watch if you're into wuxia films, or if you're looking for a good fantasy adventure.

Tsui Hark usually happens to be a solid venue when it comes to direct artistic, epic and philosophic Chinese movies as he proved in unforgettable classics such as "A Chinese Ghost Story" or "Once Upon A Time In China" to only name the most famous movie series he has been a part of.Sadly, in opposition to many favourable reviews, I must say that this movie happens to be the worst I've known from him. The whole story is confusing and not well told. The seven main characters are introduced in strange ways. Some get a lot of screening time, others just appear and are a part of the group without getting any development at all. That's why it's difficult to always understand who is who and who is doing what for which reason. Many useless flashbacks make the whole thing even worse.The battle scenes in this movie are extremely incoherent. Some of them are truly beautiful, well filmed and prove of great aesthetics. The first big battle introduces for example intriguing main villains and a lot of original arms. Other fighting scenes are just overlong while nothing really happens, for example the last fight with the main villain. The movie kicks off very promising and the first fifteen minutes are quite perfect but the film quickly decreases and even the open ending is a letdown.The acting is also strange. Some characters show so many emotions that they don't look profound but like ridiculous caricatures. The scenes with the hysteric Korean woman for example are funny first but get truly annoying after a while. The love scenes and relationship in this movie are all but credible. Many critics say the characters have a lot of depth but apart of the first three or four actors out of seven we're introduced to, this is not true in my humble opinion. Half of the seven main characters are rather faceless, the villagers are too stereotypical and the villains faceless or just out of their minds. The most intriguing character which is the evil woman with the Gothic look, dies way too soon in this movie. I must also criticize Donnie Yen who seems to be the new martial arts star from China. He still has a lot to do to get even close to a Bruce Lee, Ti Lung, Jackie Chan, Leslie Cheung or Jet Li to only name a few. I think he is quite overrated just as the "Ip Man" films with him.The movie also has its positive sides. As I said, the beginning is very strong. The filming is well done as the camera angles are well chosen, the choreography as well as images are very precise and the authentic costumes are flawless. In the beginning, the movie also works a lot with colours, for example by adding a darker tone to the red colours by making the surroundings look grey in the first brutal battle scenes. This stylistic elements fits well to the atmosphere but the movie strangely stops to employ this intriguing technique after a while. The ideas and the precision both decrease after a while even though the whole thing still remains somewhere between solid to good.In the end, the few positive aspects don't justify to watch this film that is a big letdown coming from a brilliant director as Tsui Hark usually is without a doubt. The movie had too many lengths in the fighting scenes but also a lack of depth concerning too many characters. Critics are very controversial and you should be warned before you try this one out but I definitely wouldn't recommend you to watch this mediocre effort.

Went into this movie thinking its good to be another crouching tiger, or hero.But wait its not, its a action packed movie where flying around is not a factor they stick to the ground with some cool swords and evil villains...I would by this movie and watch it without English dubbing and watch in the actual language. So if it was good with English dubbing got to be even better.Great cinama beautiful shots.must watch ...