Ang
Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a landmark film for the Kung Fu
genre. It combined arthouse drama and elegant
cinematography with badass fight scenes that were among the best ever
filmed. Sixteen years later, Michelle
Yeoh returned for this direct-to-Netflix sequel without Lee or Chow Yun-Fat. I thought the addition of Donnie Yen to the
cast and the fact that the legendary Yuen (Drunken Master) Woo-Ping was at the
helm would be enough to make this a surefire winner. Sadly, Sword of Destiny is a clunky,
curiously uninvolving affair.
A
ruthless warlord (Jason Scott Lee) wants the titular sword to fulfill a
prophecy. It’s up to Yeoh and a band of
intrepid fighters to make sure that doesn’t happen. Yen is a mysterious stranger who joins Yeoh
on her quest.
This
misguided sequel features none of the elegance and style of the original. The pacing is sluggish, and the plot is
one-dimensional. Even the usually adept
Woo-Ping’s choreography seems to be on autopilot. Aside from an OK fight on an icy lake (which
is a bit too dark) and Yeoh’s duel with a witch (which is a bit too short), the
film feels fairly ordinary in just about every way.
Yeoh
once again is great. It’s just that the
film lets her down. It’s fun seeing Lee
getting to chew the scenery a bit as the villain, even though he feels like he
came out of an entirely different movie.
Yen is sadly wasted and isn’t given a whole lot to do until the very
end.
Overall,
this is a disappointment in many regards.
If it was just called Sword of Destiny, it might’ve been a forgettable
programmer. As a sequel to Crouching
Tiger, it comes with a certain set of expectations. Unfortunately, it just can’t live up to them.
No comments:
Post a Comment