John Woo helms an ambitious, crowded interpretation of the large-scale military actions that plagued China at the end of the Han Dynasty. While its epic, sweeping scale might be the film's greatest strength, I was often too preoccupied with following the encyclopedically long-winded subtitles to appreciate the visuals as much as I would have liked. Even at a long hundred-thirty minutes, the plot seems breathless and anxious as it hurries through back story, character moment and closed-door strategic debate at a breakneck pace. There's just so much story to tell here, with none of it deemed dispensable by Woo, that even two lengthy motion pictures don't seem like enough space to contain it all.

While the planning and execution behind Red Cliff's sublime fight scenes (much of which boil down to a Dynasty Warriors-style plan of "just send one man to wipe out the infantry") is flashy and memorable, I found more value in the thoughtful musings and observations of the calm, collected diplomatic envoy Zhuge Liang. His carefully considered strategic suggestions are profound and moving, like a delicate flower growing amidst the ruins of a spent battlefield. Though one-sided in nature, with an enemy master as vaguely evil and simple as they come, it still leaves us with the perfect setup for what I can only presume will be the mother of all epic-scale scuffles. Deep and dedicated, it's often more verbose than it needs to be.