Through the film's striking use of color and landscape, combined with its riveting action sequences, it goes beyond the chronological constraints of a typical blockbuster film.

| Oct 8, 2021

Until the final 15 minutes of its deceptively short hour-and-a-half running time, Hero is a marvel, one of the best films to be released in the United States this year. It concludes, however, on a note both emotionally unsatisfying and morally idiotic.

| Jan 5, 2018

As they move through the martial-arts sequences, the performers leave the impression that the laws of gravity are subject to amendment. The rules of love and war -- all's fair -- are, Hero makes clear, immutable.

| Mar 18, 2014

The result is not so much a historical epic as a kind of highly determined ballet: dreamy with bloodless violence, relying less on shades of character than on magnificence of gesture.

| Aug 5, 2013

The austerity of Hero makes you realize how cluttered other action movies are.

| Aug 5, 2013

The result is both thrilling and thoughtful, offering imaginative action sequences as it considers questions of loyalty and the individual's role in history.

| Aug 5, 2013

As a technical achievement, Hero finds Zhang at the height of his powers, effortlessly expanding into complex genre filmmaking without losing his command. But in light of his earlier work, the film continues a sharp decline in urgency.

| Aug 5, 2013

Dishes up some of the most extravagant doodling in cinema.

| Jun 24, 2006

Strikes a mildly resonant chord.

| Original Score: B+ | May 4, 2005

You'll be hard pressed to find anything as visually dazzling as this in cinemas ever.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 25, 2004

Mortal wounds are delivered and received like love letters. Even the plot is a piece of poetry, intensely formal and hopelessly sentimental

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 23, 2004

Visually spectacular but slight on story.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 21, 2004

I wouldn't have missed this spectacle for the world, and neither should you -- despite an admitted quirk in my political sensibility in these contentious times that keeps me from admiring the film wholeheartedly.

| Sep 9, 2004

An orgy of color and movement, Hero's balletic but virtually bloodless violence harnesses the forces of nature in a thoroughly unique way.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 8, 2004

One of the most beautiful and involving films of the year.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 7, 2004

The elegant precision of the ravishing images gives each scene a timeless beauty.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Sep 6, 2004

This is a fantastic film.

Full Review | Aug 30, 2004

So deliriously chockablock with high-flying, color-coordinated fight scenes that non-aficionados may find it all a bit bewildering -- a gorgeous abstraction. It sure is gorgeous, though, and it has a dream cast.

Full Review | Aug 29, 2004

A terrific piece of work.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 29, 2004

It's not too much to say that Hero is one of the most ravishing spectacles the movies have given us.

| Aug 28, 2004