The martial world holds two swordsmen up as the greatest in the world: Snow (Cheng), the powerful, stoic master who is shrouded in mystery; Yeh Cool-Sun (Lau) an impressive swordfighter who is distantly related to the royal throne. After years of enhancing their formidable reputations, the time comes for the two to hold a duel to finally decide who is the finest in the land. The date of the duel is set as is the location - the walls of the Imperial Palace - and the whole of China is eager to see the contest. Given the responsibility of issuing official attendance medals to those deemed worthy is government agent Dragon 9 (Cheung). As the eagerly-anticipated day draws near, a series of murders occur that turn events on their head. Dragon 9 begins to piece together a plot to kill the emperor, but the identity of the person or persons involved remains hard to discern. However, as various suspects and those with information are not surprisingly killed, Dragon 9 faces a race against time to find the would-be assassin before the duel takes place.

Andrew Lau's usual productions are perceived to be humourless visual feasts, but this is something that 'The Duel' attempts to rectify in its casting. Nick Cheung (looking fairly ridiculous with dreadlocks and pencil moustache) - the star often hyped to be the next Chow Sing Chi - is cast as the leading man and injects his usual wisecracking humour to the proceedings. Cheung lacks the well-defined comic persona that Chow Sing Chi has and can often be far more annoying than entertaining, but here his presence is strangely welcome. While Andy Lau and the barely seen Ekin Cheng play their parts with as little emotion as possible, Nick Cheung at least enjoys lampooning the straight-faced drama of the film. The lighter moments of 'The Duel' make a pleasant change from the two special effects hits that Lau produced before this. However, the problem is that the film is very much a hybrid effort and the comedy is ill at ease with the heavy drama that occurs later on. Therefore this never gels in the way it could have done and the overlong duration, featuring a needlessly long ending, verges on tiresome melodrama. In 'The Duel's favour is the superior computer effects that appear in the action sequences; the fantasy sequences are one of the film's major assets and leave the viewer wanting more. With a clearly impressive budget and a star-studded cast, it is to be expected that the film is padded out and not always as engrossing as it should have been. 'The Duel' , though, is nonethless a big-budget spectacular that mostly entertains...

Basically, The Duel follows the formula for many of Hong Kong's recent box office hits, with a large cast of good-looking people, lavish sets and big special effects. Many people have decried this latest trend in HK cinema, calling it too "Hollywood" and lacking that "certain something" of the films from the mid 1980's-mid 1990's. While I do agree that many of these films lack the power of the films produced during John Woo, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, etc.'s heyday, at their core, they provide some decent escapist entertainment. The Duel is no exception. It's the old adage of a little "something for everybody"--action, comedy and romance.

You may not get any "cool points" with the HK film fanboys for liking this movie (my guess is if they had their way, we'd all be watching The Killer 5 or something like that) but if you're looking for a good way to kill a couple of hours, you could do a lot worse than The Duel. At any rate, it's a lot better than Lau's last effort A Man Called Hero, mostly because Ekin Cheng only has about 10 lines in the movie.

Yip Su-King (Lau), also known as "Sword Saint", has challenged Snow, "God Of Sword" (Cheng), to a duel atop the Forbidden City. However, only 8 people will be allowed to view this historic event. Dragon 9 (Cheung), an Imperial Agent, is charged with the task of picking the 8 lucky viewers. But he soon finds himself investigating a series of murders, and all evidence points to a strangely absent Snow as the prime suspect. As the day of the duel draws closer, Dragon 9, with the help of Princess Phoenix (who also happens to be in love with Yip), works to solve the case. Unbeknownst to him, he may just have stumbled across a conspiracy that threatens the empire.

Now first of all, seeing as how the movie is named "The Duel", there's actually very little dueling. Heck, the titular showdown isn't even the point of the movie. And it's not even a very impressive duel. Oh sure, the trailer makes it look cool. But it mainly consists of Cheng and Lau - who, in all fairness, do look quite cool in their hair extensions - leaping and flailing madly about while all manner of energy bolts and shockwaves swirl around them. The funny thing is that, despite all of those effects and wire tricks, the two never seem to get within 20 feet of eachother. Must be some fighting style I'm not familiar with.

I could go on and on about the movie's lame, anachronistic humor (which makes "Xena" look historically sound). And let's not forget the crude, sexual humor that abounds in the movie, especially the "8 limbs, 9 limbs" joke (I'd explain it to you, but there are children present). James Bond references even pop up now and then, what with Dragon 9 being an Imperial Agent and all. And that conspiracy I mentioned earlier? Thankfully, for the slower members of the audience, it's all revealed within the last 10 minutes or so, just so you don't feel like you're missing out on anything plot-wise.

And if that's not bad enough, we're also treated to a feeble attempt to work romance into the story. It's just too bad that the filmmakers expected that to add depth to their characters. The men, with the exception of Dragon 9, come off as cold and interested only in their dueling, revenge, honor, etc. Dragon 9 just comes off as a lecher fond of crude sexual jokes and brothels. The women, on the other hand, come off as either doe-eyed boycrazy teenagers or petulant little brats, and sometimes both at the same time.

But storyline, plot, characters... these things matter not to "The Duel". Extravagance, on the other hand, does. The movie had a budget, and by God, the producers were going to use all of it. Sure, there are parts when the movie is visually impressive. The costumes, the scenery, the cinematography... it looks pretty cool (although all of the location-hopping does get a little confusing). But it's spoiled by cheesy acting (especially Cheung, whose hamming would embarrass Jackie Chan) and hokey dialog, and clobbered by the special effects. And let's talk about those effects...

I love CGI as much as the next red-blooded moviegoer. But "The Duel" isn't content to just dazzle the audience. It wants to beat it into their heads that they're watching powerful swordsmen and martial artists, and if that means a barrage of special effects that make no sense, then so be it. But that just dooms the movie from the start. Within the first 15 minutes, the effects grow tedious and boring. Rather than convince you of the characters' skill, it just makes them seem that much more ludicrous. By the end of the movie, you're struck with how artificial it all felt, as artificial as watching someone play a really cool video game.

I really had to laugh when I saw the American trailer for this movie. I'll give you two guesses as to which movies "The Duel" was compared to. That's right... "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "The Matrix". But let's think about that for a second. We've got a martial arts/swordplay movie with a bevy of digital effects, so I guess it makes sense in a weird Hollywood marketing sort of way. Unfortunately, that's really the only thing about "The Duel" that does make sense.

Now, pardon me while I try and get 3 hours of my life back.

When Holy Sword (Andy Lau) challenges Simon the Snow Blower (Ekin Cheng) to a duel on the roof of the Imperial Palace the imagination of the people is captured leading to much excitement and anticipation. Dragon 9, the emperor's secret agent is entrusted with choosing eight individuals worthy of witnessing such an event. However a couple of days before the duel there are some mysterious murders and Dragon 9 turns detective as tries to discover the identity of the killer.

The mood of the movie is much lighter than the other two with more comical asides included in the dialogue thus keeping it interesting in the long gaps between action scenes. Despite there being less actual fighting in this movie the action, when it comes, is quite thrilling and some of it rather beautifully put together. Andrew Lau is not afraid to try out new techniques and the opening scenes in particular contain some very interesting sequences reminiscent of the Matrix. When the duel finally does happen it is the special effects spectacle you would expect but with enough attention given to the swordplay.

Although Andy Lau and Ekin Cheng are the two biggest stars of the film, most of the screen time is given to the Dragon 9 character (don't know who plays him) as he tries to solve the mystery. Andy and Ekin just seem to pop in every now and again until the end of the film when the actual duel comes to the fore. Its this aspect that gives the film an air of originality in what is otherwise a pretty straightforward plot unfortunately their characters aren't really given that much opportunity to develop so come the end you don't really care that much which of them actually wins.

If you didn't enjoy Storm Riders or A Man Called Hero then you're unlikely to like this very much. For me it sits somewhere between the two (Storm Riders being the worst).