Movie Review: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny"

Movie Review: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny"

by Wilson Kosasih

This movie is a sequel from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" from 2000. The prequel itself was a huge success then it received an Oscar for "Best Foreign Movie". in 2016, Netflix decided to release it on the same time as the theater's premiere. But, in my opinion, it really wasn't a good move since people could just watch it on Netflix rather than to spend money on tickets.

The story continues from it's prequel where Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun Fat, prequel) gives his legendary sword to his lover, Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) to protect it. In order to protect it, she needs some help. Silent Fox (Donnie Yen) then sees the announcement and rushes to help her with help from Flying Blade (Chris Pang), Silver Dart Shi (Juju Chan), Turtle Ma (Darryl Quon), and Iron Crow (Roger Yuan). They have to protect the legendary blade from Hades Dai (Jason Scott Lee). Throughout those events, unpredictable destiny bonds between Snow Vase (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Tie Fang (Harry Shum Jr.).

A storyline like this is too simple in my opinion, and so boring even i almost fell asleep watching it. It will be suitable for the 90s, but people won't watch this kind of movies anymore, too plain, and too boring. Sure, those martial arts they shown in this movies were remarkably good, but with those guys talking in English (horrible one) made this movie a total failure. Thankfully, i watched it in Chinese dubbed version (not better though), made the character's true nature lessen.

Michelle Yeoh is no doubt one of the best actress in the world. But here, she seemed like a mediocre actress, she didn't know what was she doing. Donnie Yen too, with his amazing role as Ip Man, didn't give his best performance either. And those other supporting actors didn't really help.

Overall, if you want to watch it, watch it on Netflix. Don't waste your money on bad-directed movies like this. For hardcore fans, you guys will be disappointed. 

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Score: 5.0 / 10 (Bad)

Pros:

+ Martial Arts

Cons:

- Bad acting

- No characted build up

- Outdated storyline

Cast:

• Donnie Yen as Silent Wolf
• Michelle Yeoh as Yu Shu Lien
• Harry Shum, Jr. as Wei-Fang
• Jason Scott Lee as Hades Dai
• Roger Yuan as Iron Crow, Wei-Fang's teacher
• Woon Young Park as Thunder Fist
• Eugenia Yuan as Blind Enchantress
• JuJu Chan as Silver Dart Shi
• Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Snow Vase
• Chris Pang as Flying Blade
• Veronica Ngo as Mantis

Distributed by: Netflix

Running time: 103 minutes

Release dates: February 18, 2016 (Hong Kong)

                         February 26, 2016 (United States)