Legendary Amazons Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Legendary Amazons Blu-ray Movie Review

Well, maybe not quite legendary. . .

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 16, 2012

Does anyone remember 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary? This little paperback book was a mainstay in my particular high school English curriculum, with my junior year Honors English (a precursor to AP English) teacher insisting we memorize every last word in the book, replete with weekly tests to ensure we had in fact done so. I probably picked up a good handful or two of great new adjectives to incorporate in my writing, and one of those was “amazon,” in its guise as a description of legendary women warriors which is culled from Greek, strangely enough. Another word that cropped up in that book which I still remember is “virago”, a somewhat related word referring to heroic women, which is etymologically rather fascinating, combining the Latin root for male, vir, with a feminizing suffix. (You armchair etymologists out there might be similarly interested to look into the equally fascinating hybrid status of the Hebrew “god-word” Elohim.) Legendary Amazons does in fact recast the oft-told tale of female warriors in a Far Eastern setting, in this case the Yang clan which features several fearless distaff combatants. The film is a kind of remake of the hoary Shaw Brothers outing The 14 Amazons, though it bears little relation to that original film, especially with regard to its gargantuan budget and cast of hundreds (if not thousands, in that old Hollywood parlance). Superstar Jackie Chan produced this opus, and he brought Frankie Chan back to the director’s chair after a long absence. This is pure and simple popcorn fare, extravagantly sumptuous but at the same time kind of silly, with some of the most nonstop hyperkinetic camera work in recent memory. It’s as if Frankie Chan realized the story itself really wasn’t enough to maintain audience interest, and so he sought to either distract or disarm the viewer with a panoply of impressive dolly and crane shots, even in relatively static scenes. To its credit, Legendary Amazons really doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is (something it in fact shares with several Jackie Chan starring efforts), and the film manages to deliver a fair amount of entertainment despite some obvious flaws.

Part of the problem with Legendary Amazons is that very aspect of a large cast, many of whom are introduced with quick (too quick—have your pause button handy) on screen subtitles which attempt to give a quick character summary. But the film is extremely talky, especially in its first act, where we get all sorts of back stories, stories which may invest the various characters with a little color but which in the long run don’t contribute much overall understanding to what is basically a knock down drag out fight film. Cecilia Cheung plays Mu Guiying, a General in the Yang Clan who believes her husband Yang Zongbao (Richie Ren) has been killed in battle. Mu and Yang have a naïve son named Wenguang (Xiao Mingyu) who shows up at the tribal village (in a fantastic entrance on a show horse) just as Mu has heard of her husband’s apparent death. Wenguang had been planning a political career, but as the sole remaining male of his clan he’s ordered to the front in what is probably a suicide mission. Mu enlists the aid of several other females to join the fight.

This paper thin plot suffices to get the film from one major battle sequence to the next, which really seems to be all that is truly on its mind to begin with. Legendary Amazons features some of the most ridiculously hyperbolic wire work in memory, which is not to say it’s not immensely enjoyable. A fighter who has nothing more to do than punch an opponent will suddenly spring into the air, pirouette several times and then come zinging back down to Earth to find her mark. There’s a considerable amount of swordplay at hand in the film, too, as well as quite a bit of stick work. Chan stages it all with appropriate aplomb, but part of the problem here is his camera is so manic that there’s little energy difference between a relatively quiet dialogue scene, which sees the camera tracking back and forth furiously, and a battle scene, where much the same technique is on display.

The film has some oddly incompetent CGI at times, which seriously undermines what is otherwise a rather expensive looking production. The costumes and sets in Legendary Amazons present the viewer with a real eyeful, and Chan’s ever exploratory camera gets up close and personal with everything from gateways to the finely woven tunics that several characters wear. But some of the green screen elements are pretty lackluster, and rather surprisingly so, especially considering the fact that this film was evidently very highly budgeted. One would have thought that Jackie Chan’s producing prowess would have helped to overcome any technological issues, but that’s simply not the case.

Dramatically, Legendary Amazons is pretty turgid going. Actors declaim their lines with the same sort of intensity that used to be a mainstay of, well, Shaw Brothers films (could this be an intentional homage?). But the main story is so predictable and frankly so convoluted and ultimately uninvolving that the main interest in the film passes almost exclusively to the action elements. It’s in that regard that Legendary Amazons fulfills at least part of its potential. You may not exactly understand what it is these vast armies are fighting about, but there’s no denying the visceral excitement of watching them beat each other into a bloody pulp.

Legendary Amazons Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Legendary Amazons is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p in 2.34:1. This Red One shot feature is shiny smooth, as befits the format, but luckily it hasn't been aggressively color graded in the DI stage, and the result is a really sumptuous looking outing for the most part. Chan frames several scenes in great looking exterior locations and those pop really well with some impressive depth of field and surprisingly strong fine object detail even in wide shots. Unfortunately the same can't be said for several green screen elements, which just look mediocre at best and are frequently rather soft and undetailed. Close-ups also burst with really great fine object detail, and the costumes especially benefit from the treatment. Colors are lush and very accurate looking, and contrast is extremely strong and consistent throughout the film.

Legendary Amazons Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Legendary Amazons features two sets of audio options, the original Mandarin language track in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0, and a similar pairing in English. The mix between the languages is virtually identical, with excellent amplitude and superior fidelity. The English dub is actually pretty good as far as these things go, and some may want to opt for it if for no other reason than the first part of the film is awash in "introductory" subtitles anyway, and it gets to be a challenge to keep up with the dialogue subtitles at the same time as you're trying to figure out who everyone is. The surround activity here is often absolutely awesome, with the battle scenes just filled to the brim with fantastic foley effects that surround the listener. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks also offer really bombastic LFE that is definitely in the floorboard rattling category. Dynamic range is quite wide, especially in the opening half or so of the film, which is somewhat talkier than the battle heavy second half.

Legendary Amazons Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (SD; 54:55). This featurette comes with a little disclaimer admitting that the video and audio quality isn't up to snuff, but that it's presented for enjoyment purposes nonetheless. The video quality actually isn't all that bad; it's about what you'd expect for an on the fly making of outing. But the audio does have some issues, mostly quick cut outs and then boisterous reboots, so my advice is to watch this with the volume turned down rather low.


• Trailer (HD; 1:28)

Legendary Amazons Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If your expectations are appropriately set to the middling level, Legendary Amazons is actually a lot of fun. It's a throwback to the Shaw Brothers ethos, though it would have been manifestly better had it stuck to the Shaw's tendency toward lo-fi thrills with a minimum of exposition. Legendary Amazons is a more ambitious film, but unfortunately those ambitions aren't completely realized, and the effort to flesh out what are in essence cartoon characters simply seems like a massive waste of time. The best thing about the film is its impressive production design (minus the clunky CGI), and there's no denying that Legendary Amazons, no matter what its dramatic shortcomings, is an eyeful and a half. Every so often all of us needs a little mindless entertainment, and that is more or less exactly what Legendary Amazons provides, even if it tries to pretend it's offering something deeper.