Dynasty Warriors is one of dozens of mid-budget adaptations of video game franchises released to Netflix, and like many of its contemporaries, it is a wild mess of a thing. The film has suffered a barrage of very negative reviews, leaving it with a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, but is there more to like than dislike about this adaptation?
Dynasty Warriors was directed by Roy Hin Yeung Chow, best known for 2012 crime thriller Nightfall and minor credit on Jet Li's Fearless. The film initially released abroad, where it was not very successful, as is still the case after its worldwide release on Netflix.
The Dynasty Warriors franchise began on the PlayStation in 1997 and has seen 9 main numbered entries with countless spin-offs, special editions, and imitators. The narrative of the franchise is a fictionalized retelling of The Three Kingdoms period of ancient China, typically sourced from the 3rd-century historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms. The gameplay is a particular style of action in which the player takes the role of a Chinese warrior representing one of the three kingdoms, mowing down massive legions of identical soldiers with fantastical weapons and magic.
The game divides its time between hacking and slashing through huge armies and undergoing tense political discussion with nobles and fellow soldiers. The film makes a bold effort to translate the bombastic combat and the over-the-top dialogue, all in elegant battlefields with the beloved hard rock soundtrack. This effort succeeds at times and fails hysterically at others.
Dynasty Warriors opens on a huge scale battle scene wherein armies fall by the hundreds with every powerful strike of the horse-bound heroes. The CGI is serviceable, but far from perfect. The main heroes wield swords, spears, and bows that bristle with electricity or send blazing waves of energy sailing through the air. The action scenes perfectly capture the epic yet comical energy of the games' combat. Moments certainly fall flat, but the opening scene, the final battle against Lu Bu, and the series of one on one conflicts near the end all feel simultaneously thrilling and funny. The standout action set piece occurs early, when would-be assassin Cao Cao makes his escape from the ornate palace grounds. The scene features a high-speed chase on horseback during which Cao drifts a horse like a Mario Kart vehicle. Generally, the action is the high point of the film.
The characters are almost all military men, typically discussing honor and throwing around ranks or titles with wild abandon. It can be difficult for newcomers to keep track of who is who, but the broad strokes are clear enough that anyone could follow the basics. Three heroes, Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, and Guan Yu set out to defeat a corrupt chancellor and reinstate a young emperor after being blessed with magical weapons by a mysterious mystical woman. They are joined by the aforementioned Cao Cao who is devoted to the same cause, but is rendered infamous after attempting to solve the problem through assassination. Together they work with a small cadre of generals to defeat Lu Bu, the chancellor's most powerful warrior and restore honor to their kingdom. The overarching plot is simple and has largely been done before, but in the finer details, elements become hazy and the film's weaker elements become more blatant.
The film was clearly hacked up pretty badly in editing, leaving some elements unfinished and others poorly explained. A standout romance scene between Lu Bu and the chancellor's daughter goes by in a blink, leaving audiences wanting more. The dialogue-focused scenes are often unintentionally humorous, as the characters drone on about honor and duty like prequel-era Jedi. Some scenes occur, then are resolutely ignored. leaving the audience to wonder why they'd be included in the first place.
After Cao escapes the palace, he finds allies who risk their lives to defend him, but, his mind clouded with fear, he convinces himself they're just about to betray him. He slaughters his allies, first as part of a delusional misunderstanding, depicted as a red visual filter, but then he keeps killing to snuff out witnesses. This scene is grim, and it feels like the film might just delve into some serious depictions of mental illness or the horrors of war, but after Cao finishes off the last of his friends, the scene is never brought up again.
The story does not hang together perfectly, based on the audiences willingness to engage, they'll find either an simple action story just barely stringing together its big fights or an overblown operatic military drama with magical combat. The film is a mess, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The stories of Dynasty Warriors games are at their best when they embrace high camp and let their characters be silly. The draw of the franchise is its huge scale combat and its hilarious cutscenes. The biggest weakness of most video game movies is that they fail to capture the spirit of the game. There is an argument to be made that the perfect adaptation of the long-running franchise is a hilarious mess, because that's what fans love about the best parts of the games.
Dynasty Warriors is miles from perfect, some might even find it incomprehensible, but among a sea of perfunctory video game movies, a film which grabs the good and the bad from the franchise is refreshing. There is a ton of fun to be found in Dynasty Warriors, if they go in with the right mindset, fans and newcomers alike might really enjoy this ludicrous mess.