I watched this in 3-D and have to say it was worth it. There are some amazing effects on display here. Something even the critics will not deny the movie. What they will say of course is, that the movie is a bit of a mess when it comes to the plot/story department. And that accusation is not wrong. It's the visuals Tsui Hark is most concerned about. Which means you get more than a handful beautiful staged and choreographed scenes and sequences.

But the story isn't that bad and though bumpy, still easy to follow. Not many will criticize Michael Bay or any other Hollywood director for their focus on the technical aspect rather than the development of plot and character. This still is superior in the character department, even though it has some major flaws there too.

Still, if you want a good time with an enjoyable Eastern you could pick worse movies.

During the Ming dynasty, the corrupt imperial eunuchs are using their powers to wrongly accuse government officials and taking over the country. The eunuchs are divided into the old East Bureau and the newer West Bureau as the emperor's all knowing spies. Zhao Huai'an (Jet Li) defeats the dictatorial leaders of the East Bureau. The West Bureau led by Yu is more skilled and chases after Zhao Huai'an. The Emperor's chief concubine Wan refuses to let any other maids get pregnant. Pregnant maid Su Huirong escapes and gets rescued by a Zhao Huai'an impostor. Zhao Huai'an sees his impostor and Su Huirong chased by the West Bureau. They head out west and end up in the desert outpost Dragon Gate during a sand storm. There they find bandits, Mongols, crooks, thieves, and rumors of a hidden treasure.

This starts off as a battle between Zhao Huai'an and eunuch Yu. However the story keeps adding characters. It's not incomprehensible but it is a disjointed way of story telling. The movie has plenty of CGI fights and big scenes. I'm willing to go with it until the various groups gather at Dragon Gate and I'm forced to more or less give up. It becomes a mess and I stop caring about half the people in this movie.

FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE is a pseudo follow-up to the Tsui Hark-produced NEW DRAGON GATE INN, with Hark now stepping into the directorial role. Sadly, it seems to have been made as an excuse to throw as many 3D effects at the screen as is humanly possible, in the form of CGI swords, weapons, wooden beams, explosions and anything else they can think of. The plot itself is a confused mess, with a mish-mash of rival characters meeting up at the famous Dragon Gate Inn and proceeding to slaughter each other. Most of the cast are stiff and underwritten, with the exception of the enjoyable Tartar characters, and Jet Li is the only notable presence here. The best scene is the bombastic opening which has a nice Gordon Liu cameo, but it quickly goes downhill from that point. The rest is overlong, cliched, predictable and messy, a frenetic mess of a film guaranteed to induce a headache and little else.