Having said all that as a preface, "Dragon Tiger Gate" is a stylish movie with lots of tasty visuals. The fu in the movie is wire-fu for sure, but the choreography is generally very good, being done by Donnie Yen. One complaint easily leveled by fu fans is the relative paucity of the fu in the movie – this is largely a story-driven (if shallow) movie with fights of importance to the storyline tying things together.

There are some seriously slow moments if all you are looking for is action, but if you can stick with it the story and imagery is worth the sit. There are some really nice pieces of camerawork and cinematography in this movie – one example is the series of overhead shots of the pogoda fights about a third the way through the film. Whether done by crane in a set or with CGI, they are nice.

The three male leads – Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse Ting Fung and Shawn Yue Man Lok – all do a fine job both with acting and fighting. Of course one needs to always keep in mind that this is a comic book movie to set aside the goofy hairstyles donned by the leads – truly bad ‘peek-a-boo’ cuts. Shaw Brothers veteran Chen Kuan-Tai does a turn as the bad-guy father-figure/boss to Yen’s character (Dragon), but his talents, both as an actor and definitely as a fu artist, are completely wasted in this role – too bad really. Yet in total "Dragon Tiger Gate" is a decent story, generally well acted; and the fight scenes, while relatively few, are quite solid as wire fu goes. Solid 3.5 star movie.

Donnie Yen does a good job with the martial arts side of the film, especially when working with the other two lead actors (Nicholas Tse and Shawn Yue) who do not have a martial arts background. The action was a bit over the top with too much wire-fu for my taste, but that can be expected from a fantasy film based on a comic book.

The director, Wilson Yip ("SPL", "Bio-Zombie") has always proved to be innovative and gives some impressive visuals in this one, but even that cannot fix the film's many shortcomings.

It's hard for this type of film to succeed without a strong villain, which was clearly the case here. Why should anyone care when he's that generic looking with no background information and doesn't even show up until 45 minutes into the show? He totally mailed it in until he kicked Turbo Shek and Tiger's ass resulting in Dragon (Donnie Yen) thrashing him later, which made all three characters look weak. In fact, Turbo and Tiger looked inferior the whole film. But why? Does Donnie Yen need that much of an ego boost after winning awards for "SPL"?

I know this is a film that you need to shut off your brain when watching, but that can be hard when it is not very entertaining. The worst thing that could have happened to this one is the high expectations that resulted with the insane comparisons to far superior films such as "Storm Riders" and "SPL". It's probably a good idea to skip this and watch "SPL"; and if you've seen that before, watch it again.

Somebody needs to offer an explanation on how this made it to Cannes.

DTG's fight sequences are very well choreographed and quite realistic, as far as comic adaptions go, exagerated at times with people flying a few meters after a punch or a kick, or jump a few yards of course, but hey, its a comic. Nobody complained in Batman or Spiderman. A surprise is also the rare use of CGI in the fights, there are but not like in Stormriders, Legend of Zu or Avenging Fist.

Donnie Yen tried more to concentrate on hand to hand combat and high kicks. Only in the final fight the fly and jump around or use some special skills.

Technically the movie is well made, with good cinematography and not so cheesey effects. The only negative thing is the story, the characters are coming out quite flat so the viewer will nerver get too close or really feel with them but with a running time of about 90 mins. and enough action it still manages not to get boring.

Not much more to say about it but after a few disapointing years in HongKong film making, Dragon Tiger Gate is , together with SPL a big step ahead and lets us hope that HongKong filmmakers are getting back their skills they where once famous for. Donnie Yen shows how it has to be and he could be the savior for the HongKong actionf ilm.

An entertaining and fun film, just do not compare it with SPL!!

Though this may not have been Donnie's best martial arts performance--as it was missing all of those pimp-daddy trademark kicks--it was still impressive and it has however the best Donnie Yen fight choreography I've seen--ever (and I've seen most of it). The fights were flat out sick and contained the best nunchuku choreography ever put onto film. That's right I said it.

"Dragon Tiger Gate" did contain CGI and some wire stuff, but it was what I like to call tasteful wire fu, as it was performed in a fluid manner to aid the fantastic realism of the film. This is unlike standard jerky, hokey and unrealistic line flying that defies physics like in movies like "Romeo Must Die". The type of special effects used in this film wound up adding to the comic book feel of the movie and enhancing the experience. Iconic, slick and beautiful.

If you want to see a movie that presents a quality mythological intensity with breath-taking eye candy, this is where you should go.

As filmmakers, perhaps the director and the cast and crew had the singular vision of making Dragon Tiger Gate "better", or at least more entertaining than Sha Po Lang. But in dealing with the recognition of the GENRE (film category), I will fast forward to this conclusion: Dragon Tiger Gate is not necessarily a "better" film than Sha Po Lang; In fact, it is simply a different film from Wilson Yip's preceeding new-school martial arts crime drama.

Dragon Tiger Gate is a live-action science fiction martial arts fantasy adventure based on a very predominant and successful comic. It stars a diverse cast of actors both young and old, including Nicholas Tse, Shawn Yue, and martial arts legends Yuen Wah and co-star/action choreographer Donnie Yen. The movie supplies a very wonderful compilation of stories told from different points of view, dealing with romance, love, family, and the importance of humility.

There are elements in the film that are not explained fully to the viewer, which more than likely means that you would have to have been a reader of the comic book in oreder to understand who certain characters are and what their purpose is in the story.

The final battle between the three starring actors and the villain Shimbumi, played by Yu Kang and voiced over by Louis Koo presents a high octane and spectacular action scene with nice CG effects, grand theatrical elements and wonderful choreography and production values.

Finally, though standing well with cool scenic artwork, use of color, costume design, casting, action and direction, my only problem with this movie is its length. With a film as great as this, it should have been at least a half-hour longer; So to say, the film tends to cut corners which would have left room to understand some of the little details about the story itself, such as who certain characters are, etc.

Just over 90 minutes, Dragon Tiger Gate is a great comic book action movie that does what most Hollywood producers and filmmakers have stopped doing--That is, giving viewers a reason to care about the movie. Instead of trying to make a "cool" movie, Wilson Yip made a wonderful cinematic venture and provided a story that leaves room for poignancy, captivation, jubilation, and explosive martial arts action. And by the end of the movie, viewers will truly be satisfied of this film.

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS: "Fist Of The North Star", "The Storm Riders", "The Avenging Fist", "Guyver: Dark Hero", "Death Trance", "Iron Monkey", "Legend Of The Wolf", "The Princess Blade" (a.k.a. "Shura Yukihime"), and "Sha Po Lang".