RipDelight
This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
Suman Roberson
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
Scarlet
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
bartleby56
I watched "Warriors Of Virtue" with my 9 year old son a few nights ago, and I can only say that this is easily one of the worst films of any kind I have seen in my 50 plus years of avid film consumption. I enjoy kids movies, martial arts movies, action/adventure movies, fish-out-of-water movies, and just about any genre of film that "Warriors Of Virtue" could possibly belong to. Hell, I like a lot of just plain bad movies, but this was just dreadful. It may have been Shakespeare or perhaps Benny Hill who observed that comparisons are odious, but I couldn't help noticing the similarities between "Warriors Of Virtue" and your average episode of "Power Rangers"(my kid, god bless him, was a big fan in the first grade).Half-baked and tone-deaf in conception, amateurish in execution, I can imagine simpletons the world over drew figurative lines in the sand in solidarity over their collective objection to the use of the word simplistic to describe this film. Half-wits would look at "Warriors Of Virtue" and wonder just where in hell the money went. It certainly wasn't spent on developing a narrative that makes any sense, three-dimensional characters, professional acting, staging, or direction. "Warriors" was pre-CGI, so I can accept that the special effects work was corny, but...kangaroos? Seriously? This movie is resolutely and resoundingly grind-your-teeth-into-nubbins stupid.
RichardKleiner
I stumbled upon this one basically by accident. While channel surfing at midnight, this came on, and saw an ordinary world kid in some pretty ancient looking forest, exploring it with a "where am I?" face, so I pretty much could tell this was some outsider boy who lives adventures in a fantasy world.If you haven't noticed from the mere cover of the movie, this is no Lord of the Rings. Even worse, it doesn't live up to cult classic fantasies like Krull, Willow or Dark Crystal.I'm a big fan of fantasy movies that deal with what I like to call "the outsider myth": some kid magically travels to a distant land and lives adventures (who wouldn't like to?), so I was left hypnotized with the potentially entertaining story and, (forgive me) the Elysia character.However, one of many flaws with this movie are the Warriors of Virtue themselves. They're kinda rat or kangaroo-looking people with great martial arts knowledge. Rather out of place for this type of fantasy, and when you see them in action, it just doesn't work. It's like watching sports mascots practicing kung fu. Much more laughable than exciting.This can be a turn off if you expected classic sword and sorcery swashbuckling, for instead, it delivers martial arts in flurry costumes.The sets are awful, with no variety. No exploration of this fantastic (sarcasm) land is ever done, and all you see is a forest, an evil palace lair, the same forest and huts on trees in (you guessed it) the forest.The main villain, one girly, over-the-top emperor, is both campy and not so evil. There appears to be a major battle to occur between his soldiers and the good guys, but no real sword fight ever occurs. Instead, you see more fluffy karate. The Evil Emperor inexplicably splits into five guys and fights all five warriors. If you thought that would be boring, they even show it in blurry vision, just another sign of the movie's inappropriately low budget. And by the end, the bad guy somehow has amnesia, forgets he was so cruel and joins the good guys (to make things even more yawn inducing). Like you could actually care. An underrated score by Don Davis helps the movie from falling completely into oblivion, but not an entirely new sound.The mythology might sound good, so maybe a remake some decades later could squeeze some more juice to the premise. But, until that happens, you can keep "Warriors of Virtue" on the shelf and pass it on.
blackrose909
Well, as one of the other users pointed out, this movie is in fact based on the Taoist philosophy, which is somewhat religious. It uses most of the 8 virtues, as listed in ancient Chinese philosophy, which many people still value.For people who are unaware of all this, especially those who care little for virtues and vices, I can see why this movie seemed so bad.However, I do not think it is anywhere near the worst/cheesiest movie of all time. I personally enjoyed it immensely when I saw it as a child and later as a teenager. Why are people being so harsh? Do they not appreciate the concept of peer pressure and the triumph of good over evil. Well to be more precise, the movie revealed bad people as having good in them, which I think is important for everyone to remember.People today are so very self-cantered and unforgiving and in this light, I believe this movie is more than just a kid's movie or action-flick and as such, deserves more credit than it is currently getting.
steven_goodell
This movie was actually very good for what it was trying to do, which is give a summary (very simply) of the VERY esoteric chinese philosophy of Taoism. Those who know nothing of Taoism will definitely find that this movie does not make much sense in some places.All of the characters are embodiments of the virtues and faults presented in the Taoist Philosophy. Yes, this makes for quite the challenge to present it in childrens movie no less.The movie is fun if you dont take it to seriously. It would seem that some of the people posting here thought they were there to see Gone With the Wind or some other Epic or adult piece. Take it as lighthearted and as a possible education on a foreign way of thought, if you are into that new things. (Then again you could just read books on Taoism to get a somewhat clearer view)3 out of 5 for production, 4 out 5 for accomplishment
