Now some of you may have been wondering where my 90’s film is. Well, due to scheduling conflicts, the teacher decided to skip past the 90’s and go straight to the 2000’s. He gave us the option to see the 90’s film for extra credit, but I decided against it because I had a pretty busy schedule. (Plus, I’m already getting an A in that class. Who’s the man?) The 90’s film would have been Fargo, and it’s possible that I might see that movie at some point, but for now, let’s just review this movie.

Jet Li plays Nameless, a mysterious samurai who has killed some dangerous assassins. The king, who has lived in fear of said assassins for many years now, lets Nameless in to tell his story, or… storIES as the case may be.

Due to this film’s structure, it can be a little hard to follow at times, and there are some scenes that can feel a little out there. I was never really a fan of samurai movies, and that’s because a lot of these moves don’t feel real. I keep expecting the actors to start singing “Defying Gravity” However, there is quite a bit off good stuff in this movie, too.

I adore this film’s cinematography. I’ve seen some good cinematography in my day, but you could take just about any random snapshot in this film and hang it on your wall – especially the shots involving symmetry. Of course, it wouldn’t be nearly as impressive without the production design. Even the exteriors look great, and each segment of the film seems to have it’s own unique color palette.

But what’s crazy about this film, is that it’s not just eye candy. There is a lot of deep thinking involved, not just to understand the plot, but to also understand some of it’s ideas and themes. And let’s be honest, when a movie plot is this convoluted, it’s also very unpredictable. At no point in the film could I safely say, “I know what’s gonna happen next.”

Overall, Hero has some great visuals and some great ideas, but feels a little flat and confused. It’s entirely possible that I might warm up to this film, but for the moment, I find it didn’t do much for me personally.

****

Now, there’s one more film left to see. My teacher doesn’t see the point of going over a film from the 2010’s (seeing as how most of us are familiar with that decade.) So, I’m going to close out A Study Of Film by going over the legendary Citizen Kane. But before we do, there’s one extra film I’ve been wanting to talk about for a long time now. Seeing how…

*We’ve reached the 2010’s.
*Soon, we’re about to go over the greatest movie of all time.
*A certain sequel is coming out.

The time is right for me to talk about my all-time favorite movie.