Le choc des empires

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.

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.

Clash of Empires is not an irredeemable movie in any way, the scenery was quite nice, a couple of the fight sequences are edge-of-your-seat quality, there is a good lead performance and the princess is simply beautiful. For those redeeming qualities however there are a lot of things that Clash of Empires doesn't do well. The movie can have a frenzied look to it, and the rushed and underexplained story(just where did the romance come from?) is a further indication of Clash of Empires being done in haste. The dialogue is very stilted and sometimes incomprehensible, while the special effects apart from some average-at-best ones at the start are very cheaply rendered. There are no characters to root for, they are almost comic-book-like in quality, the music is generic, the direction is of the kind that has heart and passion at least but not the skill and the acting apart from the lead is vapid and going-through-the-motions feeling.

All in all, Clash of Empires is very poorly done stuff but it definitely could have been much worse. 3/10 Bethany Cox

I guess it is the most awaited Malaysian movie by far. Help by various source of publicity due to the story line filled with international taste, the movie The Malay Chronicles: Bloodlines or 'Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa' in Malay does not disappoint.

Script: The English script looks to be a bit modernize but it does not hurt the movie as the Malays, Chinese and the Roman do not use English at that time. The Roman at the time is using the ancient Latins which is not practical to be used. For those of you who love history and ancient language, the use of 'Malay Purbakala' or some might say a dead language show the efforts of the script writer. Even the Malaysian audiences are having hard time to understand the language.

Story line: The story lines are quite fast and do not make you sleep, I promise. In some scene it could be ridiculously fast and in some it is understandable. It is understand that the Director wanted to limit the duration under 2 hours, so that the audience do not feel uncomfortable.

Cast: Most of the major actors and actress are doing a great job by portraying their character. Stephen as Merong, Jing Lusi as Princess, Khir Rahman as Kemawas has play their part greatly. Although, most critic in here, agree that Gavin as Marcus and Henrik as Lycius can do a little bit more.

Fighting Scene: I guess the fighting scene are amazing knowing the limited resource that the production's have, the end result is still above average. Help by a group of experience fighting scene choreographer from Hong Kong and Merong masculinity, it is safe to say that it will blow your mind.

History: For those of you who argue that the movie filled with history inaccuracies, please do your study. It is well known that 'Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa' is verbally told from generation to generation added with mystical elements which are not logical. In the 'Hikayat' or book it is told that the Geruda is not pirates but a big man eating bird known as 'Geruda'. In the book it also stated that Merong comes from Rom and in other source says he is a demigod. There are also a tale about Merong meeting Prophet Solomon.

All in all, I've got to say that the movie will not disappoint you. Reminder: If you see any problem with the CGI, well do not expect the movie will be as good as Gladiator or Alexandre or 300. Pity the production who works with only 13 graphic designers (add amateur after 13) and limited budget.

It's not a kino but it's not bad either. It's nowhere a perfect movie but it doesn't deserve 3.7.

The plot and action are decent, there are frequent fight scenes here and there. The only bad thing here is the dialogues, they looked forced, no matter how good the actor carried it. International version doesn't help either, the localization are screwed.

I would advise whoever reads this to watch the Malaysian version, it looks better here. I do watch both versions, yeah both are decent but Malaysian one is better.