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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Hero
Miramax Films


6.9

based on 39 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 170 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for stylized martial arts violence and a scene of sensuality

Starring Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang, Daoming Chen, and Donnie Yen

The time: two thousand years ago. The place: the violent dawn of the Qin dynasty. The story: the soon-to-be First Emperor of China is on the brink of conquering a war-torn land. Three opponents are determined to assassinate him and one loyal subject stands in their way. (Miramax)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Drama \| Foreign \| Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Feng Li Bin Wang Yimou Zhang
DIRECTED BY:	Yimou Zhang
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 30, 2004 Video: November 30, 2004 Theatrical: August 27, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	96 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Hong Kong / China
LANGUAGE(S):	Mandarin (with English subtitles)

Original title "Ying xiong"; Nominated, Best Foreign Language Film, 75th Annual Academy Awards; Alfred Bauer Award, 2003 Berlin International Film Festival; Best Action Choreography, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costumes/Make-Up, Best Music, Best Sound and Best Visual Effects, 2003 Hong Kong Film Awards

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Time Richard Corliss

Hero is the masterpiece. It employs unparalleled visual splendor to show why men must make war to secure the peace and how warriors may find their true destiny as lovers.

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Swooningly beautiful, furious and thrilling, Zhang Yimou's Hero is an action movie for the ages.

100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Breathtaking masterpiece.

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

A walloping entertainment, brimming with the magic-realist action that made Ang Lee's somewhat similar "Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" a hit.

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Led by director Zhang Yimou and dazzling cinematographer Christopher Doyle, the unseen Hero production team has made what just might be the most artistically sophisticated, most formally beautiful martial arts film the genre has seen.

100

Chicago Reader Hank Sartin

The result is both thrilling and thoughtful.

100

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Hero is a movie that lives up to all the nobility of its title, a gift to movie audiences who cherish the opportunity to be transported to a heretofore unimagined world and absorbed totally into what happens there.

100

Salon.com Charles Taylor

One of the most ravishing spectacles the movies have given us.

100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Hero is one of the most beautiful and involving films of the year.

100

Empire Adam Smith

The comparisons are inevitable, so let's get them out of the way. Hero is a better film than "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Perhaps the most beautiful film to hit Portland movie screens this year.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Yimou plays his images like a visual symphony, and turns a potential costume pageant into an exhilarating national myth.

LA Weekly Tim Appelo

Hero is an epic, evocative of another epoch and of landscapes beyond time. It's overwhelming. And yet I miss the animating anger of Zhang's early masterworks, in which penniless young lovers were oppressed by impotent old men.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

This is a leap into grandeur.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

You can feel the movie's sensibility and its powerful emotions in every aching image, which leaves you so caught up in these ancient times, you're loath to return to present-day normalcy.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

A terrific piece of work.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A visual poem of extraordinary beauty.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

If you found "Crouching Tiger" a stunning bore, you probably won't fall under Hero's spell. But the rest of us, well, we'll be more than happy to savor every moment of its strange, ravishing beauty.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Its stars - especially the photogenic Leung and Cheung, fresh from Wong Kar Wai's jazzy romance In the Mood for Love - are wonderfully charismatic. And wonderfully athletic.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

I wish 'Hero's emotional heat rose more intensely -- more recklessly. There's something grand but distant and almost fetishistic about the operatic solemnity with which Zhang approaches the Rashomonic story of assassins attempting to kill a king.

Film Threat G. Allen Johnson

Hero is not a CTHD clone; it’s a wonderful movie in its own right, staking its own territory as a dreamlike meditation on motivation and love.

Variety Derek Elley

A dazzlingly lensed, highly stylized meditation on heroism.

Slate David Edelstein

If his (Zhang's) fight scenes don't fully intoxicate, though, his color and compositional rigor compensate for much. See Hero on the biggest screen you can find, and sit close enough for all that spiraling silk to tickle your nostril hairs.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

As gorgeous and contemplative as it is, Hero is a genre picture and needs to deliver the action goods. To that end, there are plenty of clever, lovingly choreographed sequences.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

It's full of passionate performances (except for the wooden Li), sizzling swordplay, bold and dazzling hues, and breathtaking landscapes.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

If there's a drawback, it's that the plot is trite. Hero is an exemplary example of visual poetry. The narrative is clearly of secondary concern.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

In the end, the spectacular martial-arts epic seems to signify nothing much more than its own beauty, as brilliant and ephemeral as a fireworks display.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

These people may be really, really dangerous, but they're also really, really polite.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Not as profound as it is pretty, Hero nevertheless gives us something to ponder beyond Zhang's feat in mounting such a magnificent production.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The film never musters the intimate feel the gifted director brought to such early films as "Raise the Red Dragon" and "Ju Dou." You cheer his accomplishment in Hero without ever feeling close to it.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's a brilliant movie, fluent, spectacular, breathtaking and basically, uh, wrong.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

So deliriously chockablock with high-flying, color-coordinated fight scenes that non-aficionados may find it all a bit bewildering--a gorgeous abstraction. It sure is gorgeous, though, and it has a dream cast

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

Rich in motion -- the very clothes of the characters seem under a choreographer's direction -- as well as imagery.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Though the specifics of the story may be unfamiliar to Western viewers, its broad outlines and underlying themes are universal, and Christopher Doyle's ravishing cinematography transcends language.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Zhang Yimou's impeccably crafted, all-star martial arts extravaganza, is the essence of shallow gravitas.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Brilliant in flashes, thinned out as a whole, the film seems ideal for the DVD revolution, where the greatest hits can be compiled at the touch of a remote.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Hero keeps its characters stiffly archetypal, like chess pieces sent whizzing through outrageous maneuvers. Unfortunately, this apparent choice of spectacle over intimacy put me at a slight remove.

USA Today Mike Clark

A movie just good enough to keep nurturing rooting interest as you watch it.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Hero is easy on the eyes, but it's too segmented to gather much momentum and too art-directed to convey much urgency.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 170 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

yin yan gave it a10:
Amazing beautiful movie, with a well-constructed plot that fits together really well.

Ryan M. gave it a1:
Horribly, hard to watch, too long, cheesy, and awful.

Ian B. gave it a3:
Over the top martial arts madness. The fight scenes are fun but waiting in between each scene is like getting your teeth pulled at the dentist. Although the DVD special interview with high as a kite cocaine and X filled Quentin Tarantino stumbeling over every word and making the interviewer and Jet Li very nervous that he was going to either jump out of the window or eat a dog is funny and better than the movie itself.

Christopher J. gave it a7:
A philosophically fascinating film with beautiful action sequences. It asks questions about sovereignty, justice, and love, and then it offers loose answers.

Rodney M. gave it a10:
A visual and emotional masterpiece. A was a bit skeptical at seeing a foreign film, with subtitles. It conveys perfect action sequences, while still demonstrating emotion. Anyone who doesn't like this movie either has no taste, or is dyslexic.

Michelle S. gave it a10:
I've never seen such beautiful movie in my life.

Bill N. gave it a10:
Crazy fight scenes, good movie!

Hero Miramax Films

Hero
Miramax Films