Besetzung:
Jet Li, Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Jinglei Xu, Xiaodong Guo, Li Yan Ming, Jacky Heung, Ailei Yu, Hai Tao, You Zhang, Zhaoqi Shi, Xichao Wang, Oscar SunInhalte(1)
Mitten in der Taipin-Rebellion gegen die korrupte Qin-Dynastie, in der 50 Millionen Chinesen auf dem Schlachtfeld oder an Hunger starben, steht im Herbst 1870 General Pang (Jet Li) im Blut seiner gefallenen Soldaten. Desillusioniert, hungernd und geschlagen. Nachdem Pang durch die Hilfe einer Frau wieder zu Kräften gekommen ist, trifft er den Rebellen Jiang Wu Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro), der die darbende Bevölkerung mit erbeuteten Lebensmitteln versorgt. Er bringt Pang zu seinem Anführer Zhao Er-hu (Andy Lau) und Pang wird Mitglied der Rebellen. Bei einem Überfall rettet Pang Jiangs Leben. Die drei Männer schwören Blutbrüderschaft. Die Rebellen schließen sich der Armee der Qing an, doch jeder der drei Brüder hat unterschiedliche Motive dafür. Pang erlang in der Armee immer mehr Macht, doch dies verblendet ihn so sehr, dass sich das Blatt bald wendet und damit die Blutsbrüderschaft auf sehr gefährlichen Beinen steht... (KSM/NEW KSM)
(mehr)Kritiken (3)
A picture of two completely different parts, both of which are well-made, but don’t fit together in any way at all. Apart perhaps from the murky visual stylization. In the first, longer part, gripping battles, a booming, grandiose soundtrack, hundreds of extras, the charisma of the central trio, the opulent production design and absolute lack of story. Not even a dumb one, simply no story. In the second half for a change we get that typical Asian fatefulness, the charism of the central trio, exaggerated emotions, dialogs for dialogs’ sake and a story. Better late than never. But together as a whole they are simply incompatible. What definitely deserves praise though is the excellent technical aspect and, as usual, Andy Lau. Although he, like the others, has not much to act, but unlike them he disguises this so skillfully that you don’t really notice. It is crying out to be compared to with Musa (The Warrior). But the winner of the two is not clear, since both pictures are equivalent in terms of quality. The Warlords really is captivating, no doubt about that, but only in isolated moments, but not as a whole. The result is an outstanding picture that lacks energy in places, in places story and consistency. Mainly consistency.
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The Warlords is a decent historical film with an excellent Jet Li. It's a shame that the film only features one big action sequence which is the best in the genre, the last time I experienced such an intense visually breathtaking ten minutes was with The Raid 2, and again I groaned out loud with joy a few times, but the rest of the film doesn't offer much, there are a few short fights but the uninteresting finale pretty much buries the film, which is a shame. But it still works out to a weak 4* for me. 70%
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The rather poor story is saved by the captivating visuals and excellently filmed battles. As for the actors, I have nothing unusual to report. Jet Li is excellent and Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau are also very good. The music (apart from two motifs pinched from Hans Zimmer) is also commendable.
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