It's pretty difficult to write a review about a movie that is as visually intensive as Hero is without spoilers. Having said that, there's enough non-visual subtext in this movie to write a thesis - from the imagined condonement of China's authoritarian Communist regime to the meaning of "xiayi" or "a hero's integrity".

You all know the story so I'm not going into that. Did I think it lived up to the hype? Probably not. Nevertheless I was deeply, deeply moved by the ending. For all the criticisms that Hero sacrifices the plot for the panorama, that was an audiable 'thud' in the centre of my chest in the last few minutes of Jet's conversation with the Emperor which continued to resonate long after I had left the cinema.

Make no mistake, Hero is a very, very beautiful movie - Christopher Doyle really deserves and award for the brilliant way in which he lovingly lenses the colours and frames each shot. It's like the French Alps - no matter where you turn and take a photo, it's picture perfect. Still, I think Zhang does overdo the use of lingering slo-mo shots, a problem which vexed me when I was watching The Road Home (after seeing Zhang Ziyi run through some flower dotted field for the nth time I was ready to scream). I found it gratuitous and uneccessary. Some fight scenes, although breath-taking did nothing to advance the plot and again, I found these redundant.

The story is fairly straight forward, although the characters' machinations may appear elusive and unclear to the average audience who don't have some familarity with the genre and the Chinese culture. There are no "class 101s" here, no explanations why people fly, what "all under heaven" means, or the lessons on the unspoken honour between warriors - how Jet surmises Tony's intentions by 2 simple words. Its....understood - no need for explanations. Unfortunately, at times this comes off as somewhat pretentious.

Yet there is nothing pretentious about the fights which I found, despite their gravity defying nature, to be of a much higher standard than CTHD, thanks to a great part to both Jet and Donnie and a very credible effort by the rest of the cast. The much anticipated fight between Jet and Donnie is satisfying although not as effervescent as their square-off in OUATIC 1, but it felt really good seeing Jet with a sword, Jet pulling off some really cool moves and wushu poses. The framing and editing was good with some nice long shots so you can really see the stuff happening and its accentuated by some very very impressive special effects that make you go "Jet's the man!".

Speaking of Jet, his character's name in this movie is "wuming" or "one with no name" , but he could be easily "wuqing" or "one with no feeling". He is one stone cold *beep* here and I can see how critics are going to interpret this as "woodeness". Still, he does have flashes of brilliance which I will go into detail in my other review, but it's the way he lifts an eyebrow, or the underlying steel in his voice that makes me think Zhang could have pushed him further. Chen Daoming, the man who plays the Emperor is absolutely fantastic - I cannot overemphasise how wonderful his acting is - more so since he spend half the time in this movie sitting in one place. Maggie is as always, the consumate actress and she's like a black widow spider, so deadly and beautiful at the same time. Tony is excellent and Ziyi, although she has a only a minor role, bring a lot of desparate fury and emotion to her part.

FOr those who are watching Hero expecting kick-ass action - this isn't C2G, Kiss of the Dragon, Lw4. It isn't even as viewer friendly as Gladiater or Musa or even Crouching Tiger. It's gorgeous yet ponderous, action packed yet philosophical....its teaches that with the coming of peace, there will be an end to bloodshed and yet in order to achieve peace there must first be bloodshed. You'll love it, you'll hate it but you won't be indifferent to it. 4 out of 5 stars.