The heroic Chinese against the evil Americans. Welcome to the Korean war!
The Battle at Lake Changjin is based on the Chinese battle against the UN in the Korean War. The UN soldiers had to retreat, but they killed a lot of Chinese soldiers. This isn’t the movie that tells the whole truth. Did you really expect that?
I almost turned off the whole movie after four minutes. The reason for that is that the first sequence with Wu Jing is fishing terrible! He’s in front of a green screen, and something went wrong. They say that this movie had a budget of 200 million dollars (USD). It doesn’t seem like that when you watch the opening scene. It’s disgustingly bad!
In the lead role, we find the Chinese poster boy, Wu Jing. I’m so tired of his goofy face. I’ve never been a big fan of his, and I’m just embarrassed by his decisions in life. He was supposed to be the new Jet Li, but he became a Chinese poster boy for the Chinese government. Fish you Wu Jing! Fish you!
The Battle at Lake Changjin is a predictable movie, and it has a lot of cartoon characters. After the terrible opening, the first half isn’t that bad when we get to know the cartoon characters and heroes that are the Chinese soldiers. The American soldiers are portrayed as soulless characters. They must have picked up these so-called actors from the street as they usually do. They are fishing terrible!
Since this is a Chinese movie, you can not expect to follow regular human beings. They are programmed robots, and they are irritating and soulless as usual. The characters they play are disgustingly bad, and then it’s up to the action scenes to save this fish fest of a movie.
And the action scenes are pretty terrible if you want to see realistic action scenes. This isn’t Saving Private Ryan class. If Michael Bay had a Chinese brother who was a simpleton, then The Battle at Lake Changjin would be the movie he would make.
Some battle scenes are visually stunning. But the score is all over the place. In many scenes, it doesn’t fit with the scenes we see on the screen. After two hours, I almost couldn’t take it anymore with the bombardment of silly action scenes with big explosions, stupid decisions, and the unfitting score. And Wu Jing’s goofy face. This is too much. It’s like Peter Berg and Michael Bay multiplied five times after snorting the cocaine Tony Montana left behind before he died in Scarface. It’s too much!
There are a lot of explosions, fast editing, and the action choreography is a mess. I know that the directors of The Battle at Lake Changjin can make action movies, but the confusing action scenes in The Battle at Lake Changjin belong in a Michael Bay movie and not in a serious war movie. It’s so embarrassing to watch! And the Chinese soldiers who are important in the movie are ten times tougher than John Rambo. This is a movie that will give you a headache!
The problem with the action choreography is that you never feel that the soldiers we are following are men on a mission like the best war movie does. They have their orders and mission to complete, but you never feel exactly what they are doing. It’s just big explosions and too few Chinese casualties. It’s not like watching a game of chess when they attack or are pinned down. Just look at Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers. They take step by step to complete their mission, and it feels realistic. It’s easy to see what they are doing. And as a viewer, you get engaged, and you forget that you are watching a movie.
I can give you only one reason to watch this fish fest of a movie. And that’s to experience one of the last scenes when the Americans salute frozen Chinese idiot soldiers. That’s so funny and tragic. I feel so sorry for the Chinese audience, who I guess had a gun pointed at them when they bought the ticket to watch this fish fest of a movie! I sincerely hope that you, the Chinese People, will be free someday too! I feel your pain! Fish this movie! Here, have a fish!
And this fish of a movie is getting a sequel. By the time I release this review, the sequel will be showing in cinemas. Lord have mercy, and fish Wu Jing!