Le choc des empires

Other than the horror and comedy films that get churned out on a regular basis by Malaysia's mainstream film industry (who is going into 3D too by the way), KRU Studios showed that it had ambitious plans to make a big budgeted action spectacle that have some legs to travel the world, crafting a tale from centuries past loosely based on The Malay Chronicles involving a melting pot of Roman soldiers, Chinese warriors of the Han Dynasty, and natives of the land of Langkasuka in a joint battle against pirates of the maurading Geruda tribe. It's noisy, it's epic looking, and it features characters and a cast that would make the United Nations proud, speaking in English, Bahasa and Mandarin as well to highlight its multi-culturalism.

The story is told in simple terms, with a Roman Prince Marcus Carprenius (Gavin Stenhouse) set to wed the Chinese Princess Meng Li Hua (Jing Lusi) in a deal to seal two separate empires into an alliance. The wedding is to take place at the mid point between the east-west sea routes of the empires, which would be where modern day Peninsular Malaysia is but of course. However, the young royals fail to see the merits of any loveless, arranged marriage, before finally casting their eye on each other and discovering they share similar long term ideals. But the Geruda tribe is to gatecrash the wedding day with plans of their own for riches by capturing and holding the Princess hostage, and it's up to our heroes to train, form an armada of brave men to take the enemy down within two moons, or risk having the Princess violated then killed.

While it's a film that features an ensemble cast of heroic characters such as the Chinese Admiral Liu Yun (Craig Robert Fong) and the Roman Prince Marcus, the main protagonist is that of Merong Mahawangsa (Stephen Rahman-Hughes), whom you can picture as a Captain Jack Sparrow equivalent, minus the comedic banter and attitude, with stronger physique and better fighting skills to boot. A wandering soul himself, his amorous exploits in various lands allowed an opportunity to meet Prince Marcus and his entourage in Goa, where the Prince saves his life from the mob and having Merong promising to take him back to his homeland in Langkasuka where the wedding will be, being late meaning an insult shown to the Chinese emperor. And it becomes a prophecy (as always) fulfilled when Merong makes land, being the chosen one to unite and lead his people to battle against their joint enemy, falling in love in the process and with an added objective to restore the honours of loved ones.

This is an action adventure, so what mattered are the big fight sequences, filled with plenty of swords and sorcery, CG blood spewing all over the place, and what I thought to be admirable fight choreography to rival some of the best available out there, despite having some cringe- inducing acting from faceless extras who had to be various goons to fall in battle. The story doesn't waste time in presenting Merong Mahawangsa as a battle-weary individual, and launches into huge beachfront assaults that got repeated again as the finale battle, albeit on a different side with slightly different players. One thing's for sure though, that Malaysia has got the know how and capability to stage rather convincingly fights that combine choreography and CG (albeit some aspects of it requiring some polish), no longer having to play catch up with the more established film industries.

What I would have enjoyed a lot more would be stronger opponents, who possess some degree of sorcery to control the weather, though nothing else which blunted their supposedly mean and ruthless reputation of continuous victory. With bomohs and warlocks, it could have been more of a fantastical action flick with magical amulets, a mean looking kris and an Archimedes inspired device that looked a little bit puny due to a lack of budget. I do not have issues with the many languages used in the film since the country of origin of the film is multi-cultural, at least characters speak to each other in the same set of language rather than a mishmash of sorts, although you do have to stretch that believability a little in having almost all the characters in the film educated in more than one tongue for narrative convenience.

It may not be a classic, but it sure is quite a fun ride from the film industry of a neighbour that I'm recommending as worthy of your time during the weekend even. Now why couldn't we make a film as fun, loud and brash as this one here?

You guys cant be defending this, its ambitious.. but this movie is quite bad.

The broken English really make the movie less enjoyable, just make them even look more like amateur actors.

Quite a lot of scenes and dialogs were very corny, hard to endure. I walked away from this movie.. leaving in the background.

I can see they tried very hard to make this movie work, if they made it less corny. And if they just remove most of the English dialogs, it would be more enjoyable.

Was impressed that in a few scenes they actually did a very good job compared to the rest, but too bad most of it, wasn't.

This "Epic" drama comes out of Malaysia and the story revolves around a Roman soldier, who travels to Goa (India) to meet a Chinese Princess. She gets captured by pirates and the rest of the film concerns a unilateral rescue operation. It's let down by some cheap C.G.I effects in the battle action and half hearted Martial Arts. Best avoided.

Reviewer Raoul Hostettler thinks his local kindergarten could make a better movie that Clash of Empires and so I would like to please book a seat for the opening night. But then, if Hostettler's local kindy is as good at making movies as he is at writing English, I fear that might be a wasted evening!

Yet again (if you've read some of my other reviews), we have illiterate people writing desultory reviews about low-budget movies as though they expected them to be block-busters. Yes, I have written a few pretty scathing reviews myself but you've got to admit, those were for the absolute pits of the film industry. This movie is NOT the pits! No way! That isn't to say it's a blockbuster either but come on people, how many blockbuster movies are released each year? How many does Leonard Maltin give five stars to? But how many does he watch? Get the point? (Probably not! It's most likely too complicated for you!)

Let me ask you negative reviewers (and those readers who are contemplating watching Clash of Empires but check the reviews first), why do you watch movies? Is it to be entertained or is to avidly look for bloopers like trees not waving in the background? Is it to get all picky about English spoken with an accent? When it isn't, by the way - as in the case of the narrator in this movie who speaks absolutely beautiful English with just the right timbre for the role - the whiners complain about THAT too! There seems to be no pleasing some folk!

OK, I've got my frustration at negative-thinkers off my chest - now to the movie. Firstly, it was made in Malaysia by a Malaysin production company so one would assume that the prime target audience was Malays. However, if it had been all made in the Malay language, the box office would probably never have covered costs (because it definitely wouldn't have been cheap to make). So, very cleverly, the main language used was English which some of the Malaysian actors spoke with a slight accent. Nothing wrong with that (they weren't wearing Saville Row suits!!) I though it a nicely integrated touch for Mandarin and Malay languages to be used with subtitles where appropriate as this preserved the international flavour of the film. The action was good and the CG was OK (if not brilliant). The princess's handmaid added a little comedic interlude a few times and was well-played. Stephen Rahman Hughes as the lead was quite good (I'd like to know what the ladies thought of him). Pity there is no info about him on IMDb. I suspect that, if he ventured to Hollywood and had some good direction, he could become a big star.

I was entertained (which is why I watched the movie). I probably won't watch it again (but then I can think of some much larger-budget movies I won't watch again either!) So, if you're one of those picky twits who loves to look for things to complain about, watch Clash Of Empires. You will be rewarded - but PLEASE don't write a review because everyone else doesn't want to know how clever you are! On the other hand, if you enjoy a bit of action entertainment for what it is, then watch it too - and write a review (preferably in coherent English) telling everyone what you enjoyed! Its definitely worth more than 3.7! I gave it 6.

I gave this movie a 10, it probably deserved a 5 or 6, but with the overwhelmingly poor ratings given to it I thought it could use a boost. This was by no means a perfect movie, but I still enjoyed it. If more care had been given to the script to tighten it up and improve the dialog it could have been much better. There was too much information just tossed in and the occasional plot hole. I didn't care much for the attempts at humor, either. But, though jumpy, the battle scenes were well done and the overall pace and tone of the film were good. The theme of ancient Romans and Chinese fighting together in South Asia was too good to pass up, so I decided to give it a chance despite the poor reviews. Even though it lagged in spots it kept my attention and I'm glad I spent the time to watch it. And I'm very picky about what I watch.