Inevitably, Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon will draw comparisons to John Woo's excellent Red Cliff, because they are both based on the same source material (the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms) and were released within months of each other back in 2008. Perhaps that's not fair, since Red Cliff is a rousing cinematic experience and one of the best examples of the genre. But even if Three Kingdoms stood by itself, much less just being yet another entry in a recent long string of historical epic Hong Kong/Mainland China co-productions, it probably would still come off as something that's really not all that great unless you're totally starved for entertainment.

Three Kingdoms centers on the popular character of Zhao Zilong (Andy Lau), with the first part of the film showing his rise through the ranks of general Liu Bei's (Yueh Hua) army, and with the climax occuring during his last battle, where he faces both external and internal enemies. With this notion of subterfuge and treachery, director Daniel Lee breaks from the usual layout of films based on Luo Guanzhong's novel. Unfortunately, like many elements presented here, there's really nothing of note actually done with the intriguing idea.

Lee has the usual elements of the genre at his fingertips: a beloved story and characters, a large budget, and an all-star cast. And technically on a base level, he does things well enough. Elements like set and costume design are suitably impressive, while the camerawork, editing, and cinematography are finely done. Well, at least until we get to the battle scenes, which are disappointing. Aping the "stop-printing" filming style of Ashes of Time, and then combining poorly-coordinated and clumsy-looking wire-assisted stunts, most of the action becomes just plain boring, an adjective that you would normally not be using to describe the work of Sammo Hung.

Even if you are not an action junkie, it's doubtful you will find much of interest here. The characters are woefully underdeveloped, with even the truncated "international" version of Red Cliff giving the audience much more in the way of filmic three-dimensionality. There are glimmers of hope, such as with veteran Ti Lung playing the iconic Guan Yu, but any empathy and excitement that might have been generated is quickly dashed by having the characters written out in throwaway montage scenes. Matters probably aren't helped by a poorly-executed Mandarin overdub, which was probably shoehorned into the film to please Mainland censors, wherein the voices don't match up to the actors at all, coming off as robotic and bland. Combined with the glazed-over look in most of the cast's eyes -- especially Maggie Q, who plays one of the least threatening villains in recent memory -- one could be forgiven for stifling more than a few yawns during the running time.

RATING: 4