Post by George Willson on Nov 12, 2005 1:43:32 GMT -5
KIM Rating: 4.5.4
This is the sequel for Shanghai Noon, and I didn't go into it having watched the first film. I didn't even remember which one came first, to be honest, so I decided to see how this would play out.
I figured out pretty quickly that this was the sequel. It felt like a sequel. The characters were quickly introduced, and then breifly reminisced before plunging into the storyline, which as conceived, wasn't too bad. Actually, this film's problems are in its presentation.
The fight scenes are WAAAAAAAAAAAY too long. I got really bored watching the endless array of punch, kick, dodge, bounce, fall down. There were a lot of completely unnecessary scenes that destroyed the film's pacing. It got to going pretty good, and then something happened that was probably a throwback to the first one for the sake of doing it. The scenes in no way contributed to this film's storyline and should never have been filmed, much less kept in the final film. I could probably cut 30 minutes out of this film ad lose no story while making it interesting. After 30 minutes, I was looking at the timer wondering how long it has been, which for me, is not a good sign.
Beyond this rather major flaw, the plot itself wasn't bad. A little contrived, but it could work. Had the film been cut and edited properly, it would have been rather good, but until the super cutdown version comes out, it's kinda boring.
This is the sequel for Shanghai Noon, and I didn't go into it having watched the first film. I didn't even remember which one came first, to be honest, so I decided to see how this would play out.
I figured out pretty quickly that this was the sequel. It felt like a sequel. The characters were quickly introduced, and then breifly reminisced before plunging into the storyline, which as conceived, wasn't too bad. Actually, this film's problems are in its presentation.
The fight scenes are WAAAAAAAAAAAY too long. I got really bored watching the endless array of punch, kick, dodge, bounce, fall down. There were a lot of completely unnecessary scenes that destroyed the film's pacing. It got to going pretty good, and then something happened that was probably a throwback to the first one for the sake of doing it. The scenes in no way contributed to this film's storyline and should never have been filmed, much less kept in the final film. I could probably cut 30 minutes out of this film ad lose no story while making it interesting. After 30 minutes, I was looking at the timer wondering how long it has been, which for me, is not a good sign.
Beyond this rather major flaw, the plot itself wasn't bad. A little contrived, but it could work. Had the film been cut and edited properly, it would have been rather good, but until the super cutdown version comes out, it's kinda boring.