Plot: Little Alex is all grown up and striking out on adventures on his own without his parents knowledge. He finds the tomb of a cursed Chinese Emperor, Emperor Han. A small Chinese army wants to bring Emperor Han back to life to settle the chaos in China; only if he is revived he will take over the world. If he is able to return fully to his power he will become a powerful, shape shifting, evil force. So again, its up to the O'Connells to save the world. This time Evie and Rick have the help of their grown up son, Alex, Evie's brother, Jonathon, and a mysterious Chinese girl.

The action and special effects are great. We have everything from chariot chasing car chases (with some fireworks thrown in for fun) to yetis in the Himalayas. You cannot fault this movie for its imagination or its special effects.

The change from Egypt to China was nice and again like with Imhotep the mummy in question was based on historical fact. You may recognize Han and his terra cotta army from the famous archeological find.

I thought the acting was well done. Brandon Fraser is excellent as Rick O'Connell. Rick is a hero, a father and a husband, and has trouble wearing all those hats, which shows in the more tender moments of the movie. Fraser is able to portray these emotions well. Jet Li plays the fierce Emperor Han. He does and excellent job and the fight scenes with Emperor Han are great. Maria Bello does a passable job as Evie O'Connell. I like Rachael Weisz better in the role, but Maria does a nice job and the change in actress does not ruin the movie. John Hannah is funny and useless as always as Jonathon Carnahan-Evie's brother. Luke Ford does a nice job as Alex O' Connell. A young man that is trying to live his life in the shadow of his father's exploits. He is trying to find his own way in life-and discovers he just might need his parents in order to do that. Isabella Leong is Lin our mysterious Chinese girl who becomes Alex's love interest. She is cute and doesn't have many lines and has some passable fight scenes.

Overall, this film entertained me. It was 112 minutes of fun and I wasn't bored once. It was funny in parts, action packed in parts, and emotional in parts. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the other mummy films or anyone who likes a good action film.

The one casting I can say I definitely feel they got wrong was Luke Ford as Alex O'Connell. His accent was all wrong for the culture and background of the movie, his frat boy attitude did not mesh well with his level of success in his field, and I found him to be absolutely one-dimensional.

Aside from that the only real criticism I had for the acting was how the script did not seem to emphasize the star power of Jet Li, and we actually only see him as himself for a few moments in the opening scenes of the movie. Another disappointing facet of Li's presence is the lack of the director to exploit his outstanding martial arts repertoire. In my mind, putting Li in this role and not allowing him his usual flair is like putting Madonna in a sexy 1980's drama and not allowing her to show any cleavage.

I was pleasantly surprised with the story, I felt the picture was drastically improved by highlighting some of the features of Shanghai, and I immensely enjoyed the way the Yeti was portrayed in the Himalayan scenes. Car chase scenes through Shanghai with exploding fireworks, a massive avalanche, some campy humor, a beautiful young heroin, Zi Juan played by Michelle Yeoh, and a smooth departure from the typical Egyptian mummy adventure make me give this one a B+.

And one final question I feel I should ask; Who the heck besides the creators of this movie could imagine that a gem like Zi Juan (Micelle Yeoh) could fall in love with a cardboard cut-out slug like Luke Ford? Really!

The Premise, a Fight for Survival

In an age of famine and war in the middle of 19th century China, three men unite as blood brothers to initially lead 108 men against the ruling armies of their time, succeed and establishes peace. Jet Li is Pang, a general whose troops were slaughtered by the Kui army. He is befriended and becomes blood brothers with the leaders of a bandit army, Er Hu and Wu Yang played by Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro, respectively. Pang also develops an attraction for Lian, Er Hu's wife who comforted him when he was at rock-bottom before joining the bandit army. Driven by the basic need for food to survive, the three increase their bandit army to 800, and they forge deals with rich lords for provisions and assistance from their armies in exchange for defeating their enemies. The three's bandit army does the fighting and dying, while the rich lords' armies secure victory in the final wave of attack.

Strategy and the Bandit Army

The Warlords is a tale of brotherhood and how putting a higher value on victory, duty, love and power destroy it. Like students of The Art of War, the bandit army are effective in ambushes, and they, especially Wu Yang, appreciate and put to use Pang's strategy of “Strike, the head, and the body will fall”. Starting out as renegades with the battle-cry of “Get rich, get fed, get laid!”, the bandit army evolves with a code of conduct and become soldiers after the incident at Shu City made them realize that they are at war not just to feed their families but to free people from oppression as well.

The Pivotal Point

The pivotal point of the film is the siege war at Suzhou when Er Hu succeeds in compelling for the surrender of the city from its leader. This happens while Pang and Wu Yang are away forging deals for badly needed provisions in exchange for the taking of Nanking, the enemy's capital and its final stronghold. Gaining the allegiance of 4,000 Suzhou soldiers and the admiration of the blood brothers' own 4,000 men, Er Hu is elevated to a hero in the fall of Suzhou. Though Pang is relieved that his blood brother came out alive in the outcome, he also became wary of the unfolding power shift to Er Hu. Aside from this, Pang cannot fulfil his promise to marry Er Hu's wife, Lian, anymore.

Fall of Brotherhood

Pang always believed that an army only has only one commander and afraid of losing his role, he quickly strips Er Hu from his stature of hero. Pang does this by justifying the massacre of the Suzhou soldiers with the fact that they only have 10 days worth of provisions and still have to take Nanking. By doing this, Pang also shows the uneducated Er Hu a message he obviously couldn't read, a silent intent to show him, Wu Yang and the troops around that he is not qualified to make decisions. Being the lone supporter of sparing the Suzhou soldiers, Er Hu ends up in chains, while the massacre unfolded. He lost the power he did not even realize he briefly had. Being victorious from their campaign, the three blood brothers and warlords are finally placed in unfamiliar ground during peace-time in decadent Nanking and fall to scheming rich lords and the love affair between Pang and Lian.

An Impressive Film

The Warlords has an impressive cast and production. Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro, as always, are exceptional; however, I am truly impressed and surprised with Jet Li as a dramatic actor and not the martial artist and action hero. The wartime scenes are mainly smoke-filled black and gray reflecting the somber and desperate mood of the period. The main characters in peace-time are likewise generally clad in black rich silk as if they are in attendance to the wake of their brotherhood. Even the tale of their brotherhood dissolves to something farce as depicted in a Chinese opera to the teary eyes of Er Hu in Nanking. The Warlords is a welcome move by Chinese film-makers, freeing them from being branded as just the wire-works and wuxia film-makers.

Afternote

I bought my DVD copy of The Warlords in Hong Kong. It is a Special Edition that includes a photo book of the stars and scenes from the movie.

First a brief word about Previews. Sitting there waiting for the much anticipated Fearless, I had to suffer through at least three previews for horror films. I like horror—when it's done well--classic, gothic stuff like “The Lady in White,” or “Frankenstein.” Horror is easy to screw up and most of what hits the screen is lousy. I just want them to match the preview to the film. Preview comedies before a comedy, action before action, etc. There I said it, now for your feature presentation.

Go see “Fearless”

Fearless is a great film! Jet Li has chosen this to be his last and I have to say I agree. Yes I want to see more of him, but if he's looking to go out on top this is the movie.

This film is poignant in many ways. For one thing Li's character, Huo Yuanjia (1868-1910) was the real deal. He stood for something, and that began to lend identity and pride to China 's people in her darkest hours. Li's success as an action star has also become about more than just him. You can tell Li feels a kinship with this Chinese Robin Hood type character. And of course Li is 42 now—the age at which Huo died.

But What About the Action?

I love three things about the action in this film.

1. The director let the brilliance of the choreography shine instead of editing and camera work.

2. All the moves are real and true. (i.e. the boxer boxed, Li used Kung Fu, Shidou used Karate and Kendo. I wouldn't have a clue if the costumes were wrong but I know the fighting styles were amazing.)

3. With one exception the fight scenes were authentic, natural, integral to the movie, and 85% realistic. ( Yuen Wo Ping is famous for his wire work and it either works "The Matrix" or it doesn't "Crouching Tiger").

What about the “PG-13” Rating?

It's about right for the film. No nudity just violence. The cool action kind of violence not the “Godfather III” shock value kind of violence. The theme and character of the film would have justified even more.

There are three things which are true to nearly any big budget film out of China . Their violence won't be gratuitous the cinematography will be amazing, and the plot will end tragically. I appreciate the first two and abhor the last. In this case, unlike “Crouching Tiger” the tragedy fits perfectly the plot of the film.

Larger Story

When I say larger story I speak of a style of film criticism in which secular movies are examined for elements of truth that transcend the intended scope of the film. Not necessarily Christian themes so much as human themes from the perspective of a person who believes we are all in God's story.

Yes there is larger story. Father wound, vow, all of it. My guess is that some scenes from this movie will turn up among your all time favorites. A hero who lives and dies in such a way as to call out the best even in his opponents is a true man of character.