14 Blades Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

14 Blades Blu-ray Movie Review

These blades are dull...but the transfer is too sharp.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 29, 2014

Writer/Director Daniel Lee's (White Vengeance) 14 Blades takes viewers back to the days of China's Ming Dynasty for a story of power, betrayal, burgeoning romance, swordplay, and lots of precision action choreography. In short, it is, at its center, most every other "swordsman" Wuxia movie ever made and particularly similar to many of its contemporaries in the post-Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon era of impossible stunts realized by extensive wire work and digital workmanship. Indeed, the film is frenetic in its action but rather languid in its pacing and uninspired in its story. While the action generally satisfies, the stretches in between frequently feel less a plus and more a chore in which genuine emotion frequently gives way to structured cinema contrivance. The movie, then, feels like the proverbial cinematic roller coaster; when it's going, it's going hard, but it sometimes takes all its might just to reach the next thrill.

In ancient China, select children are bred almost from birth to grow into "Jinyiwei," guardians of the high court. They wield almost limitless power, both in terms of their authority and the strength of their weapons. The group's leader -- its best fighter -- is dubbed "Qinglong" (Donnie Yen). He's one day tasked with quelling a rebellion and bringing back evidence of the pending coup. When he sets out on his mission, things go awry. He's ultimately left to fend for himself when a deeper corruption and plot is unveiled. He ultimately becomes involved in a relationship with the young Qiao Hua (Zhao Wei) and must rely on his training and the contents of his weapons case -- home to the title "14 blades," each of which serves a specific purpose for the Jinyiwei -- to survive and save the country from an unjust fate.

At its core, 14 Blades appears to strive to build on classic Wuxia style not by reinventing the genre but by giving it an edge, and a rather harsh edge at that. The film's opening act is dark and brooding, built around a heavyset atmosphere that's frequently sliced and diced yet fully dominant of story and surrounding structure. It's nearly impenetrable and seems only further distanced when hints of Batman-esque gadgets and actions suddenly appear seemingly out of nowhere or from the depths of Qinglong's case that carries the instruments that give the movie its name. These certainly make for an interesting centerpiece -- each has a purpose, as outlined at film's start, and of course those purposes are predictably fulfilled throughout the course of the film -- but they, too, often feel lost in the deluge of action that, at its peak, can feel like nails on a chalkboard rather than a perfectly timed symphony. Yet one cannot help but be tantalized by it all, even through all of the distractions. It's as high-energy as the genre allows, but when it stops, it crashes, and crashes hard.

Donnie Yen, star of the wonderful IP Man, isn't provided the same quality of script here as he is in his better roles, yet he nevertheless provides a balancing center that would otherwise be absent with a lesser actor, particularly under the deluge of the film's nearly impenetrable atmosphere and feeling of excess. Zhao Wei is a solid enough counter, more than a pretty face but not quite the fully realized character that might have made the movie's forays away from its action pieces a bit more palatable. Kate Tsui best defines the movie's action, adding a layer of spectacle that reinforces the style in its larger-than-life scale and providing for Yen a solid counterbalance on the battlefield. Yet it all comes back to those sizable action pieces overwhelming the film, drowning out much of the story nuance and often leaving a befuddled jumble of stuff up on the screen, enough to satisfy baseline entertainment demands but not enough to build a more complete motion picture.

14 Blades Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

14 Blades' transfer is best described as "problematic." It sports a terribly processed and artificial look in practically every scene. While details are frequently complex -- faces, wood grains, clothing lines -- there's an artificial sharpness to the image that betrays a natural look. Worse, the image is absolutely overwhelmed by frequent and thick edge halos that encircle everything: characters, along walls, around hats (see the screenshot above). Light banding is visible against a few shots of bright monochromatic sky. Colors are, for the first act, drab and dominated by shades of gray. Once the movie escapes to a more forgiving daytime exterior, viewers will find a more vibrant selection that also favors a processed appearance. Black levels are flat, and skin tones, too, take on that artificial appearance and seem more defined by the thick makeup than natural colors.

14 Blades Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

14 Blades features a Mandarin language DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Optional English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles are included. One word to describe this one? "Loud." This is a full-throttle track that, unfortunately, pushes well beyond the boundaries of balance and into nearly gross excess. At reference volume, the track is practically unlistenable. It's a jumbled array of heavy action effects, from crashing boulders to gunshots, from clanking swords to various bits of martial arts chaos. Music follows suit, playing heavily and with a wide, enveloping stage presence that's absolutely dominant with every note. Opening narration is sharp and heavy. General dialogue delivery isn't problematic at the macro level, but there are minor issues when it sometimes sounds dubbed over rather than natural and with a slight misalignment to actor mouth movement. A dialogue scene around the 27 minute mark serves as a good example.

14 Blades Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of 14 Blades contains no supplemental content.

14 Blades Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

14 Blades should have been better. A heavy atmosphere and loud action that borders on there excessive overmatches everything else the movie has to offer. It's fun in spurts but disappointing in its lows, never able to become a sum greater than its parts. The acting satisfies and the filmmakers certainly succeed in creating an edgy posture defined by moments of incredible action, but deep filmmaking this is not. Anchor Bay's featureless Blu-ray offers overly processed video and audio pushed to messy excess. Skip it.