5.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
Fantasy film based on an old Chinese legend about an herbalist who falls in love with a thousand-year-old White Snake disguised as a woman. Jet Li stars as a sorcerer who discovers her true identity and battles to save the man's soul.
Starring: Jet Li, Shengyi Huang, Raymond Lam (II), Charlene Choi, Zhang WenAction | 100% |
Foreign | 95% |
Martial arts | 70% |
Fantasy | 34% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.38:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Mandarin: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
On paper, The Sorcerer and the White Snake sounds like China's answer to The Lord of the Rings—it's a big-budget fantasy epic with mythological creatures, wire-fu wuxia swordplay, and a tale that takes place across stunning, larger-than-life landscapes. Unfortunately, in execution, it's more like China's Van Helsing—a thrill-less supernatural thriller that's all empty CGI spectacle. Albeit here, the CGI looks like it would've been cutting-edge circa 1994. The compositing is bad. There's a distinct lack of texture. The animation is wonky. It would be easier to overlook the technical shortcomings if the rest of the film were better, but The Sorcerer and the White Snake is an all-around subpar effort, 100 minutes of cornball romance and talking animals and lazy, obligatory-feeling martial arts. Yes, Jet Li stars—and his name alone will most likely sell a few copies of the movie—but he's nearly as underused here as he was in The Expendables. When he does get to kick ass, the focus is less on him than the chintzy computer effects surrounding him. This is particularly disappointing since the film is directed by Tony Ching, co-director of the Swordman trilogy and the action coordinator on Hero and House of Flying Daggers. The man knows martial arts action.
The Sorcerer and the White Snake has an odd visual aesthetic for 2013; on one hand, it's filled with CGI—outdated, texture-less CGI—and on the other, it was shot on very grainy 35mm stock. The digital/analog combo definitely adds to the are you sure this film isn't from the 1990s? vibe. Magnolia's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer at least seems true to source, although that source is a little grubby-looking. I even noticed occasional white specks on the print, which is rare for a relatively new theatrical release. Overall, the image is a bit on the soft side—with the heavy grain structure obscuring what might otherwise be fine detail—but from a normal viewing distance this isn't really an issue, unless you're watching via projector or on an extremely large screen. Color is more immediately striking, with a dense grading of generally warm tones and splashes of intensity, like the red gown on the "ice harpy" at the beginning of the film. Contrast is balanced well, and there are no issues with overpowering black levels or wonky skin tones. Likewise, noise reduction and edge enhancement are kept out of the equation here, and I didn't spot any obvious compression or encode problems. Do note that the film was originally released in post-converted 3D in China, but Magnolia has opted not to do a 3D Blu-ray edition here.
Magnolia has included two audio options, the original Mandarin and an English dub, both in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. (As you'd probably expect, the dub is goofy and stilted, so I'd recommend sticking with the default track.) Though not quite up to the fantasy epic sound design standard set by the Lord of the Rings movies, this is a fairly full-bodied mix that makes good use of the surround speakers in just about every scene. Ambience is quiet but welcome—hear the clamor of the village festival, wind rustling through bamboo trees, bubbles gurgling underwater, lapping waves—and there are occasional cross-channel effects during the more intense, action-oriented sequences. Mark Lui's score also spreads out across the soundfield, with Chinese violin and flute vibrating up front while orchestral instrumentation swells in the rears. Everything is clear and dynamically solid, and the dialogue rests at the top of the mix, always easy to understand. The disc includes English, English SDH, English Titles and Text, and Spanish subtitles.
The disc features a trio of behind the scenes featurettes with the usual assortment of interviews and on-set footage, plus a quick promo that ran on AXS TV and the film's theatrical trailer.
If you're going to make a spectacle film that puts CGI ahead of story, you'd better make sure the digital effects are actually impressive and not the sort of low-texture, badly animated stuff you remember seeing from late 1990s video game cutscenes. The Sorcerer and the White Snake is a big- budget movie that looks like a low-budget movie trying to be a big-budget movie—if that makes any sense—and it doesn't really work on any level, with hammy acting and goofy comedy and rote martial arts action. Fans of cornball kung-fu movies might find something to enjoy here, but this is one of those so-cheesy-it's-possibly-entertaining situations that will be fun for some and torture for others. I'd watch the trailer before considering a blind buy.
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