A remake of the 1983 film of the same name, Zu Warriors is a martial arts drama set in a fantasy world where stoic warriors battle a powerful demon. With each kill, the horrific beast consumes their souls, making himself stronger and more difficult to slay. Hark Tsui directed this film, which stars a slew of actors (Ziyi Zhang, Sammo Hung, Cecelia Cheung) that are familiar to fans of Chinese action films. After Zu Warriors was released in 2001 to great success in China, Miramax snapped up the U.S. theatrical distribution rights for the film in the hopes that it would match the success of its earlier purchase Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But after sitting in Miramax's coffers for several years, Zu Warriors never made it into U.S. theaters and instead went straight to DVD in 2006. Fans of the martial arts genre will see some awesome action sequences. The actors move with grace and skill, and they overcome the cheesy digital effects, which already look dated. But the melodramatic pauses and all too frequent far-away glances are out of place and distracting--even in this fantasy. --Jae-Ha Kim
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: the best movie ever Comment: im in love with this movie. the action, and colors, and just the mystical powers alone is enough to get you hooked. Customer Rating: Summary: Some creative ideas, but okay script and special effects are hit and miss. Comment: Keep your expectations low and this movie will pass as entertaining. There's a nice story in the movie, but the script doesn't do it justice. I played the Enlgish language version, so I don't know if the Chinese version was better. The special effects were great at times, but were terrible for the most part. The actors were great and did the best they could. Some interesting fighting scenes. The immortal beings storyline reminds me of the Japanese anime Scrapped Princess, which I do recommend. Watch it for some of the creative visual effects, but don't buy it. Customer Rating: Summary: was great on HDTV, can't speak for the DVD Comment: Came across this last night on KungFuHD and was more than pleasantly surprised. While this may be considered a remake of the 1983 original it was different enough that I didn't know. Yes, some character was sacrificed for CGI effects - this was all about the special effects. I saw the longer 1:47 subtitled version which was mostly non-stop action so I don't see how they could have have cut this down to 80 minutes and have ANY story left. As others have said it's like DBZ and Star Wars (new ones) with a hint of LoTR thrown in - the Evil guy was named Mordo. Customer Rating: Summary: Great Film! Comment: This movie will be appreciated by Martial Arts Lovers...Not the ones with Guns in them...This is a Wuxia Pien, Film and Expect the CGI and Animation but it is the Dragon Ball Z Brought to LIFE without the fake looking stuff like the cheap budgeted Martial Arts Films..This has lots of Fantasy but filled with Fighting ...It's Great...If you love Jet Li Films of the flying action fighters..then this is your type...GET IT! Customer Rating: Summary: dissapointed Comment: i remember when they first showed a prview of this moive in theatres long time ago in 1999. it was only playing in selected theatres and i wanted to see it pretty badly. few years later i could not find a dvd anywhere i went. finally it comes out and i buy it on amazon and man, was i dissapointed. sure martial arts in movies is great if you like it, but it was not so good in this film. also the special effects which they were praising about in this film looked like a kid in his parents garage made it. in all, this film is lucky to recieve 1 star.
