I like the Chinese fantasy genre & “wu xia” martial arts films.. And I’ve really enjoyed some pretty cheesey plot lines and ‘special’ effects in Hong Kong movies from the 80’s. Mr. Vampire and Chinese Ghost Story are some of my favorites.

I allow foreign films a bit more of a break than films from my own culture. I generally assume I’m missing some of the symbolism and that the subtitles aren’t giving me the best dialogue.

I can respect and enjoy the seriousness of some of the plot points about honor/betrayal, etc. while still being able to laugh at some of the over the top elements.

It was beautiful, goregous scenery, gorgeous shots, beautiful costuming. The visual negatives was the horrible CGI which was way overused.

The plot was a little weak, nothing we haven’t seen done better in other movies.

On the whole I was disappointed, but mostly enjoyed it. However, I would only recommend it to people who like the genre and if you liked House of Flying Daggers- another beautiful movie that was very thin on plot.

P.S.
From people’s comments apparently there were different versions for different US markets. I saw the one called “The Promise” that was about 1.5 hours.