Poor story and special effects hinder 'Promise'

By CHRIS HEWITT
ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
"The Promise" is one of those Chinese adventure/romances where people sword-fight in beautiful robes and fly through the air as thousands of bored extras look on.
In the filmmaking, but not quality, tradition of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero," "The Promise" has gorgeous visuals (in these movies, the cherry trees are always in bloom). But it's marred by stuttery storytelling and cruddy special effects.
The worst effect is supposed to make our hero look as if he runs incredibly fast, but it's so fake and digi-looking that he might as well be in a Roadrunner cartoon. He's part of a romantic/political quadrangle whose members also include a bad guy who carries in front of his face a solid gold fist that makes him look like Dr. Evil, except more ridiculous and metallic, and a selfish little minx you don't want any of the guys to be stuck with. She's so rude and unlikable that "The Promise" is like an attempt to make an epic romance about Paris Hilton.
I suspect the problem is this is the sort of movie that requires a showman like Zhang Yimou, who made "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" and is producing the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics. Instead, "The Promise" was directed by Chen Kaige ("Farewell My Concubine"), whose gifts for character detail and historical sweep are lost here.
He can do pretty, but you'll find the same scenes of people bathing in translucent lakes in TV ads for emollient-rich soaps, and those TV ads are more compelling (and less long) than "The Promise."