El fantasma

Nic Cage to some has lost it. He's not the main attraction here though. Hayden is (hence my summary line) and he is either barely succeeding in that brooding act he's putting on (going through a hard time trying to redeem himself, not entirely of his own free will mind you). Following orders is not always the best way to go.

The story is pretty straight forward, the action scenes are decent, but the cutting/editing of them is very frenzy. You might like that (it creates the illusion of fast and hard hits or blows to the body) or not, depending on your taste. Overall this is not the worst of Nic Cages recent outputs, but it's not an instant classic either

I honestly think this movies isn't that bad. Hayden's acting is getting better in my opinion, however it's just the accent he used that is bad. Nicholas Cage on the other hand is horrible, both his acting and accent is garbage.

What in the hell is this garbage!

Nic Cage...for the love of god man! Seriously! ...know what...its not your fault...no... Im a huge fan...and Ill remain one forever. But for the love of god... James Dormer!!! What was going through your mind as you wrote this poor, boring, mind blowingly (and numbingly) DULL and dreadful script!

How they even got the funding to do this film is like beyond me. Uwe Boll films are BETTER then this. For crying out loud.

There is zero character progression. There is no worthwhile story. Everything happens for no particular reason. Some single event that transpired in the middle east caused Hayden and Nick to travel to China.....done.... nice..... *facepalm* And from there they end up being involved in some Chinese royalist jibber jabber blah blah thats been seen 5000 times by now. The action is lackluster... no typical Chinese cinema special effects or such which could have added substantially to the film. The film feels insanely rushed....yet at the same time you end up sitting there... waiting for it to be over so its actually also painfully long. Whether that makes any sense to you my dear reader is up to you. Im not watching this ever again. There are some really weird and corny...uncomfortably corny camera set- ups. Stuff that will make you think....ehm....okay....which is a small detail but enough to make an already bad film worse.

It couldn't get more painfully boring if they tried. There is nothing Chinese as such over this film too. Everybody speaks English. This is the worst accent I've ever heard Nic Cage make in my life and it pains me to say this cause' I love the guy. He's awesome...but god damn it... this is dreadful.

Imagine Nic Cage role playing with a bunch of dudes in the forest...making medieval'ish accents... Lad...and blah blah...yea...thats the film. I cannot believe the director allowed it. With that said...the director is NOT EVEN A DIRECTOR. he's an assistant director who's never made a film before. WHy Hayden!? Why Cage?! Why anyone in this film...why are you taking part in a disaster like this?! This was doomed before it even began.

my god...this year and video games....this year and films... this is horrific. As if "Left Behind" wasn't bad enough.

*sigh*

I kept asking myself through the film. Who is this made for? because it sure as hell isn't the Nic Cage fan boys...its not the guys loving action. its NOT a Chinese audience... its basically not any audience this film might ...could....appeal to. So who then? Is it to advance the career of the actors? because this film will most certainly NOT accomplish that. Is it a directorial debut? Evidently yes... Congratulations Nick Powell...you messed yours up BADLY!

My god... Why why why why why! Why is it so incomprehensibly difficult to just make a good film. Why Hayden...from Star Wars signed up for this is anyones guess... Nic Cage...FIRE YOUR AGENT! Like RIGHT NOW! if you love your fans... fire that "agent" of yours and start making films like Tokarev...like Bad lieutenant... like Kick Ass... like The Frozen Ground. Cool and great stuff. Stuff that shows you for what you are. A damn good actor!

Stop participating in this garbage! PLEASE! For the sake of your fans! For our health... stop it!

This film hasn't got anything to offer anyone. You wont learn anything you don't already know. You will not take anything away from it. based on that this has absolutely no reason to even exist.

Its just.....more.....I guess. More junk.

Go watch the Last Samurai or Season of the Witch instead. Seriously. If you disliked 47 Ronin with keanu Reeves...you'll absolutely despise this. Reason Im comparing the two is because once again we see Westerners going to the east...go kick ass....in typical Hollywood manner... no interesting story...just pure boring and utterly unrealistic action. Its just about as trivial as it could possibly get.

Regardless my dear reader. Consider yourself warned.

I cannot recommend this to anyone. If you are a Cage fan...STAY far away.

I repeat. Go watch Season of the Witch or The last Samurai instead of this. If you watch this film anyway...use a free film site...do yourself that favor because paying for this will make you regret it.

For the love of god... *facepalm* NIC!!! PLEASE!! GET IT TOGETHER MAN!!!

I went into this expecting crap, and I guess there are lots of weird things in the film.

For example, it bypasses the language barrier by giving everyone involved the universal translator, and the Chinese characters speak English in distinctly British accents, wtf.

Also, it combines elements of both the Crusades and Chinese Imperial stuff into a single film, which was interesting.

Hayden Christensen punches a woman in the face. I found that funny, considering the nobody made a fit about "violence against women omagazz". Then again, the film does depict lots of women and some children being slaughtered, it probably would've gotten a pg13 for that if the censors got their hands onto it.

The dialog is somewhat cliché, then you also have the white savior cliché in which Nick Cage and Hayden Christensen kick Chinese ass to save Chinese people from other Chinese people, but I'm cool with that. But honestly, the film does in fact fulfill its duty to entertain. There are lots of sword fights, some cool (although anticlimactic) arrow scenes, and a nice supply of blood, but not in a particularly gory way.

The story is somewhat nonsensical, I guess the only defense to that is 'who cares'.

Over all though, it still was kinda FUN, nothing really made me cringe, and the Chinese theme in a non Chinese film is somewhat refreshing. So my final verdict is: 6/10 fun but not particularly memorable.

This isn't a great film and I think that the low IMDb rating (4,6) is correct. I'm afraid that the explanation lies in the clichéd dialogues and in the naive action scenes (who could find convincing a man who regularly defeats dozens of enemies as if they just didn't exist?) which seemed outdated for the present times.

But this bad outcome is, under many respects, a pity, because the film has a very good cast, great stunting, beautiful scenery, excellent images, a modern editing and its storyline, although not even remotely original, is a honest classical plot for an adventure movie.

Nick Powell is a top stunt coordinator (and that's why the stunting is so good), here at his first experience as a director. I don't know how great his ambitions are but he didn't seem far from making a film that could be much more appreciated by people like me.