Hey folks, Harry here. Ya know... WHen I heard about ROMEO MUST DIE... and it being a play on the whole ROMEO AND JULIET thing... My heart sank... just a bit, because I realized that in all liklihood... that meant that JET LI would at least be off camera for as much as he was on camera. Then when ya look at that great trailer... It looks like a JET LI movie. Now... this was a Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay early screening. And yes they are doing A LOT more work on the film... But temper your excitement a tad or two... Personally, I'm dying to get my SWORDMASTER 2 dvd!
To Harry,
I am an AVID Jet Li fan who was fortunate to have seen that first sneak preview. After reading the review from Mysterio on your site, I felt that I needed to add my two cents worth of opinion in RMD as Mysterio reflected only some of what I felt about RMD. As you well know opinions are like ass holes, everybody has one. However, after having seen the RMD preview in theaters and seeing people's excited reaction to this preview, I felt that people maybe be disappointed when they go and see RMD. The preview made this film look so much more interesting than the way it was at the sneak that I saw. I know they are making changes at Silver pictures as we speak. But I thought I should throw in my two cents worth, a bit more negative regarding RMD, and some spoilers here. But I like to think of it as constructive criticism.
Ok, here goes....
Well, I think for the most part with the right editing, it will be basically an entertaining movie, i.e. not a bad movie, but not a great one either. It will do marginally well at the box office as a pure action movie as long as people aren't looking for any intellectual stimulation.
The first part of the film after Han arrived in US was REAL boring!!! There was so much talking and introduction of all these other characters (which still isn't completely clear)!!! Where was Jet? I thought this was a Jet Li movie!
Maybe it's because of my involvement in chinese martial arts (wushu), but there were a couple of wire stunts that I thought were outrageous and didn't work well. Maybe it's bad editing. But the one that bugs me the most is the one where jet kicks 3 or 5 (?) black guys in a row in the warehouse scene and then finishes by jumping off the wall. If they want to do the matrix stuff they should let us see it clearly, slow it down or something, right now it's speed up so fast and so far away, I have no clue what it is. And it looks funny.
Also about wushu, the couple of movements that Russel Wong does during his workout scene are just ridiculous and laughable. Really, the scene should be longer hopefully giving some credibility to his prowess in wushu as far as the movie is concerned.
As for story, I was left with a very bad taste in my mouth about how Chinese were portrayed in the film. Besides Chinese that are supposedly in Hong Kong that can't speak Cantonese worth shit, or Chinese in Oakland that can’t speak English (using phrases like "the honorable Mr. Whatever" and "the venerable Mr. whoever").... Also, what the hell were those kids saying in the water?!!! That didn't even come close to sounding like Chinese! Also, in the movie, the black mob boss is so nice and wants to do everything for his children and community (HE'S A MOB BOSS!!), whereas the Chinese mob boss is just a money grubbing old man and just wants to kill everyone including HIS OWN CHILDREN.
Where's the ebonics? Do black people from Oakland generally sound so whitewashed?
Why is Han in jail? Why does Han hate his father other than for being a mobster....all not clear. Where is Jet in this Jet Li movie? I thought this was the Black mob daddy's movie!!!
For getting major billing, where's DMX?
where's the love story? If this is Romeo and Juliet, where are all the scenes where Romeo and Juliet interact romantically?
So at the end, Han the fugitive from Hong Kong can walk away from a murder/suicide scene and not be at least questioned by all those cops???!!!
Well, I’d still go and watch this because it's a Jet Li film and I know they are trying to do more work on it and the fighting editing will be better. But for a Jet Li film, there is not enough Jet Li in it. Maybe Hollywood don't trust a Chinese actor to carry a big film such as this yet?
sincerely,
pEtEr
