The Promise
Warner Independent Pictures (WIP) | Release Date: December 30, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
13
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
For Kaige, The Promise can't exactly be called a return to form--it's more a return to "Hero" and "House Of Flying Daggers" director Zhang Yimou's form. Either way, it's still glorious. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Chen's masterful, deeply perceptive direction of his superb cast is equaled by the film's luminous cinematography, rich yet spare and stylized production and costume design, and rousing score. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
I found The Promise pretty hard to resist. A heady blend of swordplay, somersaults, fairy-tale romance, and computer-generated whoosh. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Whether or not the story makes any sense, The Promise promises to transport - and does. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
In keeping with that home-team tradition, The Promise lives up to the title --it really delivers the eye-popping goods. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
Some critics are badly selling the film short, when the story it tells, measured strictly in terms of emotional power and overall fun, is as moving and pleasurable as any matinee item by Ford, Hawks or Raoul Walsh. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Chen Kaige clearly intended this Chinese fantasy-action spectacle to top Zhang Yimou's "Hero," and I must admit that I prefer it to the earlier movie: the digital effects are sometimes excessive, yet Chen's story of a loyal slave, his master, and a wealthy, seemingly doomed princess is more affecting, especially in the closing stretch. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Like many of Chen's movies, which are so precise and composed and lush, it's not really emotionally engaging. It is, however, a dazzling and dynamic spectacle that risks being ridiculous to create an unreal world of the romantic imagination. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
I'm not sure the director should return to this particular genre, whatever you'd call it. But he is, in fact, a real director. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineEthan Alter
The mixture of action, drama and romance isn’t as potent, and Kaige’s reliance on subpar special effects hurts the movie. Wu xia fans will still find things to like, but the uninitiated will probably find this slow going. Read full review
60
VarietyRobert Koehler
A mixed bag of near-risible storylines, second-rate CG effects, some fabulous set pieces, somewhat cartoonish martial arts fighting and difficult international casting. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
While it aspires to draw the same audiences who admired "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero," The Promise is but a pale imitation of those landmark films. Read full review
60
The New York TimesDana Stevens
The Promise occupies a curious landscape somewhere between opera and cartoon. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Sumptuous and beautiful and as silly as a sack of nose glasses. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
You can't help wondering how the same Fifth Gen filmmaker who made "Yellow Earth" and "Life on a String" could've fallen on such hard times, or justified such goofiness to himself. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The over-the-top acting is forgivable, but the plot's incoherence is not. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyStaff (Not credited)
There's a nice Road Runner-cartoon moment when the slave runs really, really fast, carrying the wounded general on his back while dodging an attack of CG bulls. I can't imagine Road Runner was what Chen had in mind for the most expensive movie ever made in China, but then, I was born too late for the time of the snowy eagle. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Like its images, The Promise billows through the imagination as it unfolds but it leaves little lasting impression once its last feather has fluttered. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
So absurdly overproduced that there's even a surfeit of cherry blossoms. By the end they look like litter.
50
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Has a daft sweep, and if you're in the mood for empty swordplay in baroque settings, purple dialogue delivered with straight faces, and romantic yearnings that never, ever resolve, The Promise may be your cup of oolong. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The actors were mostly nondescript, sometimes noticeably clumsy. Stunt coordinator Dion Lam brought a bit of freshness to the martial arts choreography, but the rest of the film was as stale as a week-old carp on a fish vendor's pushcart. Read full review
42
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
It aims for outlandish and athletic love lyrics and instead achieves all the potency of a makeshift nonsense song banged out on a toy lyre. Read full review
40
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The movie is full of invasions, assassination attempts, chases and escapes in seemingly random order, the result being completely chaotic. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Pretty much a mess of a movie; the acting is overwrought, the plot is too tangled to play like anything BUT a plot, and although I know you can create terrific special effects at home in the basement on your computer, the CGI work in this movie looks like it was done with a dial-up connection. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
The prologue sets a simpleton tone that, distressingly, continues throughout. Read full review
12
New York PostV.A. Musetto
The Promise employs laughable computer effects and second-rate martial-arts fighting to tell the hard-to-figure story of a princess and her three lovers. Read full review
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