This is a review with some critical elements by Mark R. Leeper at OptOnline.net. Hero turns out to be one of the most expensive films made in China as china tries to expand its influence worldwide. The author talks about the use of colors in the movie, which are dull sometimes and sometimes very contrasting with the actors wearing bright clothes compared to the surrounding. We can see that in the scene when Moon fights with Snow (both wearing red) in a yellowish green set (the color of the leaves). The following quote very much sums up the plot 0f the movie:
"HERO combines the fantasized martial arts of CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN
DRAGON with some of the same history from the under-rated THE EMPEROR
AND THE ASSASSIN. It has neither the rousing adventure of CROUCHING
TIGER nor the historical epic sweep of THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN.
But the visual style of production designers Huo Ting Xiao and Yi Zhen
Zhou and cinematographer Christopher Doyle makes this one of the most
beautiful films that has been seen on American screens in quite a while."
One thing that was also noticed in the film is the lack of blood which the author believes is due to sensitivity of the audience in China. It is somewhat unrealistic that just a few drops of blood are seen when the fighting sequences are very intense. I believe one more thing that is missing in the film is fire. In the hollywood, we see that fire does play a role either through guns / bombs in action movies or flying arrows / burning villages in historical villages. I was surprised that the Qin soldiers weren't shown burning the villages of their enemies or using arrows of fire, like in Kingdom of Heaven, when China supposedly invented gun powder.
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