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Rarely have I been told so urgently by so many and disparate sources to go see a movie as with Hero. So today, with my brothers home from school, we took a mid-day trip to go see this apparently mind-blowing film.
(before I go further... let me just say, in case this makes it back to Chris: if you're going to reccommend a movie vehemently on an email list, it's not horrible advertising to say what it's about. Convincing my brother to go see it with me was very much fun:
Scene: our family is driving, and we pass a theater where Hero is on the big marquee.
Me: Ooh, Hero! I've been told I should see that movie.
Brother: What's it about?
Me: Um, I'm not exactly sure. I've just heard from someone who knows a lot about cool movies that I should see it.
Dad: Oh, well then!
Brother: Well, I'd love to go! See, I've just been told by someone who knows jack about cool movies that I should see it!
[end parenthetical])
The movie, btw for anyone who has yet to see it, is a historical epic set in China several thousand years ago, and it features lots of swordplay and men (and women) flying about on wires. It is, however, vastly better than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for what that's worth.
The best part of Hero, hands down, were the colors. Oh dear lord the gorgeous, beautiful colors. Every scene in a different hue, brilliant and bold and, wonderfully, not at all contrived. I would never have thought a movie could have the entire screen awash in bright scarlet at one point, and then later in bright frosty blues, and have it all make perfect sense and just feel right.
Adding to the visual splendour is some of the most dynamic swordfighting I've ever seen. Yes, it was definitely disconcerting the first time we realized that this was a wire-fu film to some degree, with the duelists soaring through the air at each other, swords outstretched, but the genius about this movie is it lets you get over that. CT,HD, for example, kept upping the ante for what they could do with wires ("Now, onto the roofs! Now, straight up a shaft! Now, in trees! Now..."), but Hero keeps the effects fairly simple, and always couches them in utterly jaw-dropping scenery. The highlight of the entire film for me was one fight in a grove of trees, all with bright yellow leaves which filled the air and carpeted the ground. As the bright red-clad warriors fought, their swords swept up the leaves around them, creating enormous whirls of color in the air. Purely, magnificently glorious, and you should go see this movie in theaters if for no other reason than to witness that scene.
The other part of the movie, the investigation into the moral ambiguity surrounding the concept of heroism, was solidly executed, but moot to anybody who has read Watchmen. However, it scores major, major points for subtlety and leaving the conclusions clear but unspoken. My favorite thing about last year's Seabiscuit was that the writer never, ever made his characters actually say the stupid, plot-advancing lines, but always brought them right up to them and then let the visuals speak for themselves. Hero does much the same thing, only on a much broader scale, and the result is that a wire-fu swordfighting epic feels like one of the most intelligent movies you've seen in a long time.
So. I repeat what everyone else has said: Go see Hero while it's in theaters. Your sense of aesthetics will thank you.
(before I go further... let me just say, in case this makes it back to Chris: if you're going to reccommend a movie vehemently on an email list, it's not horrible advertising to say what it's about. Convincing my brother to go see it with me was very much fun:
Scene: our family is driving, and we pass a theater where Hero is on the big marquee.
Me: Ooh, Hero! I've been told I should see that movie.
Brother: What's it about?
Me: Um, I'm not exactly sure. I've just heard from someone who knows a lot about cool movies that I should see it.
Dad: Oh, well then!
Brother: Well, I'd love to go! See, I've just been told by someone who knows jack about cool movies that I should see it!
[end parenthetical])
The movie, btw for anyone who has yet to see it, is a historical epic set in China several thousand years ago, and it features lots of swordplay and men (and women) flying about on wires. It is, however, vastly better than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for what that's worth.
The best part of Hero, hands down, were the colors. Oh dear lord the gorgeous, beautiful colors. Every scene in a different hue, brilliant and bold and, wonderfully, not at all contrived. I would never have thought a movie could have the entire screen awash in bright scarlet at one point, and then later in bright frosty blues, and have it all make perfect sense and just feel right.
Adding to the visual splendour is some of the most dynamic swordfighting I've ever seen. Yes, it was definitely disconcerting the first time we realized that this was a wire-fu film to some degree, with the duelists soaring through the air at each other, swords outstretched, but the genius about this movie is it lets you get over that. CT,HD, for example, kept upping the ante for what they could do with wires ("Now, onto the roofs! Now, straight up a shaft! Now, in trees! Now..."), but Hero keeps the effects fairly simple, and always couches them in utterly jaw-dropping scenery. The highlight of the entire film for me was one fight in a grove of trees, all with bright yellow leaves which filled the air and carpeted the ground. As the bright red-clad warriors fought, their swords swept up the leaves around them, creating enormous whirls of color in the air. Purely, magnificently glorious, and you should go see this movie in theaters if for no other reason than to witness that scene.
The other part of the movie, the investigation into the moral ambiguity surrounding the concept of heroism, was solidly executed, but moot to anybody who has read Watchmen. However, it scores major, major points for subtlety and leaving the conclusions clear but unspoken. My favorite thing about last year's Seabiscuit was that the writer never, ever made his characters actually say the stupid, plot-advancing lines, but always brought them right up to them and then let the visuals speak for themselves. Hero does much the same thing, only on a much broader scale, and the result is that a wire-fu swordfighting epic feels like one of the most intelligent movies you've seen in a long time.
So. I repeat what everyone else has said: Go see Hero while it's in theaters. Your sense of aesthetics will thank you.
