What I loved most: zhaoyun's spear

What I really hated: zhugeliang's birds

john woo in one stroke sold the soul of chinese cinema and literature into a dumbed down no brainer thriller. character development is more often than not stereotyping. lecher cao. perplexed zhuge. simpleton zhanfei, etc. the drive behind the story is weak. the intrigue of the 3 kingdoms strategising and plotting is replaced by slapstick dialogue. it seems to john woo straightforward circus fighting would seem more interesting than the infernal affairs styled tension and suspense. of course a full replication of the original 3 kingdoms novel would be bad, but at least this abridged version should at least make some coherent sense. sending birds out to recce enemies playing soccer? culling 2000 calvarymen with an elaborate battle formation whilst 798,000 of the enemy naval main force sails past ur empty rampart? generals fighting all the time on foot? and a whole lot of non trivialities like fighting tigers. delivering a horse calf, catching a buffalo thief, bathing pigeons. the overall effect is more like a cheap cartoon judging from the sniggering from the crowd whenever the main characters make an entrance. the sheer dumbness of all the characters involved make it really a wonder how would a million soldiers clash in a bloody epic with leaders like these.

What I loved most: storyline / more depth / characters improvise

What I really hated: not much

better than the andy lau's version by a mile. good storyline, easy to follow plus the characters are well manned. to those who do not like it, can't comment much. must wait for part 2 now. not to reveal much, as spoils your mood to watch it. to those uncles who thought this is complete version, pls don't watch it. very annoying when you never do research about the 2 parter, then complain so much. no need to read those books as the storyline easy to follow, i myself never read it before, only played those games for ps2 and watch those jap anime b4 which does not relate too much to this storyline. do watch it and enjoy then wait for part 2 end year. hope they can release a full part dvd version instead separating it next year, just like lotr. i do hope to watch it again as a complete version 4 hours, now too eager to wait for it. what to do john woo left us the exciting part 2. now hanging half way.

What I loved most: Character likeness

What I really hated: Messy battle scenes

First of all, kudos to John Woo for selecting a great cast in term of likeness to character. GuanYu, ZhangFei and ZhaoYun are good portrayal for their role. Zhang Fengyi, Tony Leung are at their usual best. But somehow the characters lacked the grandeur that is expected for an war epic, and the movie miss out on the small details such as GuanYu's polearm, ZhangFei's spear which should be different from ordinary weapons. This adaption tend to focus on introducing as many characters as possible, and miss out a great deal of details for character development, eg in Changbangpo, the scene where ZhaoYun grabbing CaoCao's sword, and ZhangFei famous ploy at the bridge that made CaoCao's men quivering with fear, KongMing's debate with Wu's scholars, are omitted, which would have been great character development for them. That said, if John Woo were to include all this in the movie, wouldn't the movie be as long as Ben-hur. The effects and CG for the battle scenes are acceptable, the close up actions for the generals are very good, typical John Woo style but the extras on set looks like they are just being there to fill in the slots which they do not show the life and death nature of war. Overall this is an entertaining movie which can be so much more.

What I loved most: Massive and great war scenes

What I really hated: Characters based on actual novel

John Woo tailored the movie for the actors' popularities, not on the characters in the actual story. He did follow the events but he did not do justice to the heroes of Romance 3 Kingdoms. Zhuge instead plays second fiddle to Zhou, Sun Quan is a coward, Cao Cao is understanding and humourous! Then he added some meaningless scenes like Xiao Qiao making out with Zhou and a court girl being humiliated by Cao Cao. Not sure what he was trying to do, he should develop other major characters such as Guan Gong, Zhang Fei or even Zhao Yun. Maybe he did not write the whole screen play. Fans who read Romance 3 Kingdoms will not follow this adaptation though.