There was a free screening of House of Flying Daggers at Doc last night. I got there to line up an hour before the screening, but by the time they opened the doors, there was a huge line that wrapped around it self several times, and I'm fairly certain some people were ultimately turned away. The movie being the latest from the director of Hero, anticipation was clearly running high.

That's the good news. The bad news is, most of the people I talked to said it didn't quite meet their expectations, and that was my impression as well. The President of Sony Classics, who was there, said that HoFD, unlike Hero, wasn't political; it was meant to be entertaining. But even with such "low" aspirations, the film failed to deliver.

The action was fun, but it felt like they'd taken the "suspension of belief" thing a bit too far. The cinematography was nice, but it didn't have the consistent quality that Hero had (there were certain shots that definitely were in need of color correction). The plot was tantalizingly compelling, but then ended in disappointment. The ending was abrupt (in a bad way).

I wouldn't discourage people from seeing it, but don't go in expecting the best Chinese action movie ever. If you expect something slightly less than Hero, you'll probably come out satisfied.