This is by all time ever... probably the worst movie I have ever seen. Not by script, just by pure bad "something". I sat down in my chair for 2hours and saw the whooole movie without having a clue what the story really was all about. The label of the movie said more than the movie itself. It was so bad I will probably have nightmares for many, many years. Though I still enjoyed watching it... very strange. I will regret saying this, is there another movie like this one? Cause I got kind of stuck in the almighty "forward/rewind kung-fu action, with remarkable good effects for what it seems to be a budget movie I could do on the backside of my house with my buddies and grandmas teeths as sound effects". Sorry to say this, These actors deserves better.This movie will always follow me, as a dark, dark shadow... eeek!

I bought a DVD of this from a second hand shop because it referred to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon on the box. This is just as lush looking, but the story is from another planet. It's all well acted and brilliantly directed and all that, and the settings are epic and beautiful, but the script has the shudder inducing obviousness of an internet fantasy parody. The fight sequences are strangely detached, and some nice special effects (such as a bamboo walkway rising up and attacking a character) are almost lost in the twitchy editing. Even more distracting is the fact that the character Cloud has a nineteen eighties hair colouring job that kills any sense of exoticism. Actually, as I write this it occurs to me that this might be aimed at children and the UK DVD has been clumsily packaged for an adult market. Anyhow, despite all this criticism, it is a fun DVD for idle minds. Try watching this with vodka, and making farting noises every time someone says "Wind" (it's the name of one of the characters). For the full effect, I recommend the director's cut. My DVD includes this and the international version, which besides being a great deal shorter, is dubbed, which kills it. Deranged, but joyous.

I saw the DVD of this movie in a local HMV store and on the cover it said that it outsold 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' in Hong Kong. I read the back and it sounded very interesting. The DVD contained 2 discs - the international version and the Director's cut. I opted for the Director's cut as I like to see films the way the Director intended.So, I bought it, sat back and pressed play. I was absolutely amazed - the story was fascinating, steeped in Eastern mysticism, the acting was superb (especially Aaron Kowk as Cloud and Ekin Cheng as Wind, the two principal leads) and the special effects were mind blowing. I won't give the story away and to be honest, the plot wouldn't do justice to the way the film's made and how entertaining it really is. Ideas are thrown in one after the other, Lau's direction is assured and there are set pieces which defy belief (for example, when Wind is fighting the fire dragon in the cave).It's simple, if you have a chance to see this, then watch it. Watch the Director's version though - the International version is many minutes shorter and badly dubbed.

When I first saw the box for The Stormriders, I had never heard of the comics, let alone the film. But given that this is one of the biggest films, Hong Kong had ever made, I had to watch it for myself.I was, it has to be said, very pleasantly surprised. The storyline was a bit dark (possibly one might say it could have been darker to give it a bit more depth), and some of the martial arts action were brilliantly choreographed. The characters were on the whole well built giving the whole movie an edge.However, the main weakness of the film has to be the discontinuity in many places in the film. It does feel, even with the Directors' Cut, version that I saw, there was too much edited out of the film and it left you slightly disoriented at times. I can't begin to imagine what the International Version must be like as it has some 40 minutes taken out of it.But credit has to be given to the graphics team behind the special effects. They were all discreetly put together into the film, such that it added to the film rather than the film depending on it. The film is already some four years old as I write this, and it seems to not have aged at all.Overall, it is a good film to watch. The box also mentions that it's Final Fantasy HK Style, and though I'd say the story itself might not make a great Final Fantasy game, the SFX do give it that feel. The film isn't perfect, but I have to give it full marks have for effort.