Disappointment
I had high expectations from the movie. It was said to be a highly praised production. However, when I watched it; despite the familiar subject and a few TV series and movies that had been made, it was handled very poorly and could not go beyond being an ordinary movie. It gave that impression. There were supposedly good actors. The costumes were good. The action scenes were good. But that was it. The way it was handled was very simple, superficial. There was no proper love. There was no emphasis on brotherhood. It was an empty copy. I gave points for effort. It was a disappointment for me.Was this review helpful to you?
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An Abysmal Disjointed Mess of a Beloved Classic
I am still in utter disbelief of what I just watched on screen for this beloved classic. The movie was a complete disjointed mess. If you are familiar w/ the story and other adaptions you will be incredibly disappointed, bored and even frustratingly annoyed. If you are not familiar with this story you will be utterly lost and confused. For a 2 hour movie, I skipped thru a lot. It was so boring an unengaging.THE GOOD (its hard to even pull out anything good)
- The they kept the iconic theme song from the 1980s adaption
- Hua Jun (Mongolian Princess) this was a more complex, strong, interesting version of this character compared to previous adaptations of her being a whiny wimp
THE BAD (soooo many to list)
- Storyline and pacing was so rushed and disjointed. Left so many plot holes as to why certain characters are important or related.
- Zero character development, resulting in lack of emotional connection to any one character, even the main lead couple.
- Both ML and FL were utterly miscast. Zero chemistry. Neither one of them could truly portray the iconic characters of the slow-witted, adorable, loyal and freakishly strong Guo Jin or the cute, charismatic, cunning and witty Huang Rong.
- They just boiled it down to Ouyang Feng (West Poison) being the lead antagonist, whereas other adaptions had so many nuanced antagonists. And they made Ouyang Feng out to be some odd comic book character - his look, his acting, etc.
Overall an atrocious adaptation of a beloved class. What a complete waste of time.
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XIAO ZHAN IS NOT GUO JING
STORYAs adapted from classic book "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" this movie doesn't bring the original story that we remember, most of scenes hand-picked based on theme not mirroring the original book. The main is to get it colossal, going big exaggeration scenes about war which definitely missing important elements to get where the story end to. Hate to see it twisted and missing all the important details. With focusing on Genghis Khan, the Mongol army marched westward to defeat the Jin dynasty and then planned to head south to eliminate the Song dynasty. Skilled martial artists from various schools of the Central Plains were involved in the fierce battles - this is far from the book - Jin dynasty is the traitor from ambition and greed of Guo Jing's sworn brother Yang Kang and his step-father Jin Prince Wanyan Hong Li but without mentioning these traitorous characters - the script writer(s) made up story connection to fill the gap or tie the dots and unfortunately it fails to grasp the beauty of whole concept of the book 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' as to why this is such a beloved classic. But I kind of understand too, with so many adaption/version of this novel into dramas/movies since 1958, the Team wants to focus it from different angle - so different than previous productions but I feel like they fail to capture it's manifestation.
ACTING
For sure Xiao Zhan isn't Guo Jing. Guo Jing is a bit retard, naive, innocent, slow, big boyish strong young man. Guo Jing isn't a handsome youngster unlike Xiao Zhan, his honesty and loyalty that pull Huang Rong heart. The previous drama The Legend of Heroes 'Hot Blooded' actors are more similar features (Ci Sha as Guo Jing) in the book. Guo Jing doesn't have commanding present of him, he follows what Huang Rong says because she's the genius one while Guo Jing is the physical force/brawny. Although Xiao Zhan doesn't have much of make-up on, he lives by his reputation 'pretty boy' so we can't see Guo Jing in him. Xiao Zhan leads all men in the country as man-perfection but Guo Jing is just a down to earth man - in some scenes Xiao Zhan is being male-idol Xiao Zhan not slow-Guo Jing. I think that's the mistake. The girl playing Huang Rong is alright, I like the hairdo and make up - pretty basic and minimal. It's good....don't need super neat hair and flawless make-up where they're at Gobi desert.
OVERALL
It hits and miss. The producer forget important part to be colossal movie, skipping early chapters to straight to the end chapter of the book, a colossal without (or little) beginning. Its bigger but not better. Not a good movie, scale 5 is generous.
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Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants XIAO ZHAN'S BRILLIANT PERFORMANCE, HIS STRANGTH & POWERS!
FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT ARE COMPLAINING, AND COMPARING THIS TO THE BOOK, THIS IS NOT THE BOOK!!! THE BOOK IS A BOOK!!! THE MOVIE IS A MOVIE!!! THEY ARE 2 TOTALLY DIFFEENT ENTITY'S!!! SO FOR YOU TO LEAVE A LOW RATING LIKE 1.0 IS NOT A FAIR RATING, BECAUSE BASED ON WHAT I SEE YOUR COMPLAINING ABOUT "DISJOINTMENT", THE CGI, IT DRAGGED ON, Etc.All I Have Say Is You People Can Not Base This Movie On The Book. I Am Going To Assume Then Every Movie, And Drama That Has Anything To Do With Any Of The Books You Would Rate All A 1.0, Because It Is Not To Your Expectations, Like The Book Which Is Pretty Pathetic, And Sad On Your Part. But If You Must Sadly Compare This To The Book, You People DEFINITELY DON'T KNOW WHAT A TRUELY BRILLIANT AWESOME MOVIE THIS IS... OR YOU PEOPLE ARE JUST PLAIN JANE BLIND, OR WATCHED A TOTALLY DIFFRENT MOVIE, BECAUSE SERIOUSLY, I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT OR WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!
"Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants" 1st And For Most Can I Just Say This... I Can't Believe This Movie Only Got A Rating Of 8.1 For My Xiao Zhan... I RATED IT A 9.5!!! (AS OF TODAY DECEMBER 23RD, 2025, IT HAS DROPPED DOWN TO A 7.8, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE???) I've Already Seen It 3 Times, And Want To See It As Man More Times As I Can, Because It Is Such A Awesome Movie, (I EVEN WENT BACK TO WATCH IT A FORTH TIME, AND STILL LOVED IT!!! 12/23/2025) Because I Want To Support Xiao Zhan As Much As Possible. If Xiao Zhan Wasn't In This Movie, I Probably Would Have Not Had Any Interest In It, Being As It, I Didn't Know Any Of The Actresses Or Actors, But I Have To Say I Would Have Been Missing Out On A Great Movie Even If Xiao Zhan Wasn't In It, BUT I Am Thinking The Only Reason Why I Love The Movie So Much Is Only Because Xiao Zhan Was In It. I HONESTLY HAVE TO SAY I WOULDN'T EVEN CARE OR PAY ATTENTION TO THIS MOVIE, BUT ONLY DID, BECAUSE XIAO ZHAN IS IN IT!!!
I Can Not Even Begin To Tell You How Much I Love, And Adore This Young Man XIAO ZHAN. He Is Such A Talented Actor, And Such A Hard Worker. All The Hard Work, And Stunt He Did To Make This Movie. He Had To Train Very Hard For This Movie. Even His Horse That The Director Specifically Chose For Him Did Not Like Him, And Gave Him Problem. Xiao Zhan Even Got Hurt In The Face From Filming This Movie. 😭😭😭 Poor Baby, But At Least He Has Not Scars On His Beautiful, Handsome Gorgeous Face.
As Fans We Don't See The Pain, And Agony An Actor Goes Though, To Get Ready To Film A Movie Unless Your Like Me, And Watch The Behind The Scenes, Or Extra Stuff. All We Do Is Sit In A Thearter For 2-3 Hours, And Watch... 5-6 Months To Film A Movie, The Agony, And Torture Of Working All Day, And All Night Long To Film!!! We All Should Appreciate Xiao Zhan For All His Hard Work And Dedication On This Movie, Because It Was Such An Awesome Movie... It Had A Lot Of Excitement, And Was Really Action Packed. I Will Say This, DO NOT BLINK OR GO TO THE BATHROOM For A Break Or You Might Miss Something Important, That's How Action Packed It Is.
The Fight Scenes Are Like Crazy Good, The 1st Time I Saw This Movie, I Was Teriffed For Xiao Zhan, And Him Getting Really, Hurt Which In Real Life He Did, And Now I See Why, Because This Movie Is Insanely Crazy. The Visual Affect Were Insanely Crazy Too... Again I Don't Understand Why This Movie Only Got A 8.1 Rating. Everything Was Great, And Awesome, Xiao Zhan Did An Excellent Job Playing His Character, His Acting Was Great, Excellent, And He Made The Character Come To Life. The Way He Interpret The Matial Arts Skills That He Was Learning, And Even At The End With Everything He Learned He Had The Power To Do It All, And More, But He Is And Was Like No Other, NOT GREEDY OR WANTING SOMETHING HE CAN'T HAVE!!! Xiao Zhan Made This Movie So Great, And So Spectacular!!! NO ONE COULD HAVE PLAYED THE ROLL OF GUO JING BETTER THEN XIAO ZHAN DID!!! Only, Only One Other Person Might Have Been Good Enough, If Not Better Is Wang YiBo, And Maybe, Maybe Ren JiaLun, And Liu YuNing, BUT XIAO ZHAN WAS SO PERFECT IN EVERY WAY, SO WE WILL NEVER KNOW!!!
The 2 Female Leads Did A Great Job Too... Selling There Sweetness, And There Strengths... By The Way I Want Huang Rong Weapon, That Thing Was Bad *ss... Not Sure If She Made It Look To Be Bad ss Or It Was Just The Weapon It-Self, But That Thing Was Cooler Then Hll. But Yeah, These 2 Lady's Did A Great Job, Everyone Thoughout The Movie Did A Great Job, But Xiao Zhan As Guo Jing Was The Best... 🤣😂🤣 No Just Kidding... No, But Seriously Xiao Zhan Is What, And Who Made This Movie Happen.
Anyways If You Want To See A Really Action Packed Movie With Same Crazy Sunts, And Crazy Fight Scenes Then This Is The Movie For You. By The Way Every Fight Scenes That Xiao Zhan Was Playing Guo Jing, HE NEVER HAS A WEAPON, AND OR SWORD, NO BO, NOTHING!!! He Has Other Means, And Powers To Fight, Magic Like... He Was Very Strong And Powerful With His Craft. .
The 2 Main Female Leads, 1 Fights With A Sword, And Other One With Some Type Of Metal Iron Stick That Can Be Flimsy, And Soft Like Whip, Or Hard Like A Stick. They Both Fought In There Own Special, And Unique Ways. They Both Became Friends In The Most Unexpected Way, But Ended Up Becoming Kind Of Enemy's, But Not Enemy's... Because Of A Slight Lie, Or Not Telling The Truth To The Other One.
They Both Fancied Guo Jing One Was Supposed To Be Engaged With Him After 2 Years, But Got There Heart Broken, The Other Left Him, Because Of A Misunderstanding, But In The End He Showed Signs To Her In How To Find Him. "PINWHEELS" That's All I'm Going To Say!!!
Guo Jing Was Raised By The Mongolian, And The Great Genghis Kuan, So When It Came Down To War, Genghis Kuan Expect Something Of Guo Jing, And Guo Jing Rejected His Request, Even If It Meant Killing Guo Jing, But Guo Jing Would Not Fight Against His Own Country, Even Though Genghis Kuan Took His Mother, And Him In When He Was Just A Child. Guo Jing Knew Where His Roots Were From, And Could Not Do It. I Knew He Couldn't Betray His Own Country.
But Even Though He Could Not Betray His Country, He Could Not Hurt The Mongolian's, His Brothers... Nor Genghis Kuan, Even Though There Was A War Between The Mongolians, And His Country. Guo Jing Came Up With Tactical Strategies To Take The Mongolians Down, But Not Kill Them. He Came Up With So Many Strategies The Mongolians Never Knew What Hit Them. Just Amazing, And Clever Planed Out Strategies!!!
As Far As Everything Else Goes, Your Just Going To Have To Watch The Movie To See What Happens... Just Remember Your Watching A Movie Full Of Magic Of Sorts, So It Will Be A Action Packed Movie. Not To Mention The Strangth, And Powers That Guo Jing, And This One Other Guy Has... Guo Jing Is Way Strong Then Him, And Always Seems To Beat Him When It Comes To Strangth, Power, And Magic. The Other Guy Says They Are Equal In Strangth, And Power, NOT EVEN!!! OTHER GUY WISH HE WAS EQUAL TO GUO JING!!! 🤣😂🤣
P.s. The Horse That Producer Chose For Xiao Zhan That Was Supposed To Be The Perfect Horse For Him, NOT, It Was So Stubborn, And Disobedient That Xiao Zhan Had Trained With That Horse Before The Filming Of Movie For 2-3 Months Sraight, 8 To 10 Hours A Day, And Yet In The Movie, I Hardly See Xiao Zhan Riding Horse In The Movie, Maybe The Most Is 3-4 Time, So I Don't Understand The Rigerous Training With That Horse, And WOULDN'T IT HAD MADE MORE SENSE TO JUST CHANGE TO A BETTER WELL TRAINED HORSE??? "I GUESS NOT" LIKE SERIOUSLY WHY, TORTURE XIAO ZHAN, AND THE HORSE, WHEN THE SOLUTION IS TO SWITCH TO ANOTHER HORSE. 🤷♀️ I JUST SAYING SHEESH!!!
Originally Wrote This Review On March 3rd, 2025 From 11:39 A.M. To 1:03 P.M.
Edit, And Added More To The Review On December 23rd, 2025 From 9:27 A.M. To 10:43 A.M.
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it's incredibly draggy don't recommend to watch.
the actors did well on portraying their own roles but i honestly think its just the director who had forgotton its a movie instead of a series in the middle of the plot. he dragged it on way too long for no reason adding unnecessary scenes. this led to a short ending and a unreasonable one. i also wonder what are the soldiers for except stand there like a prop. no character development and story progression shown throughout the movie. if i hadn't seen the show or novel i would not understand the point of the entire movie itself. i have to be honest the cgi and effects of action scenes was quite epic but everything else is a drag and waste of time. i don't recommend (i dont usually put reviews as i dont criticise movie often but this id just a waste of time)Was this review helpful to you?
Where the hell is the storytelling in this film?
I hesitated whether to write this review, but since I invested my time and made it to the very end, I decided to do it anyway.The film started off quite nicely in terms of visuals. The opening scenes caught my interest, but soon after that came a major disappointment. First and foremost, the overuse of very artificial CGI and green screen was impossible to ignore. The film was advertised as showcasing breathtaking landscapes, yet there were only a few such scenes; most of the “outdoor” settings were clearly shot in a studio. There was far too much music, and for the most part it completely failed to match the atmosphere—rather than immersing me in the world, it constantly pulled me out of it. Unfortunately, these are not the most painful issues this film suffers from.
The two most serious flaws are the problems with the plot and the poor acting.
Where the hell is the storytelling in this film? The film fails to establish any overarching stakes. It does not build its characters. The viewer is told that they are supposed to care about the characters’ fate, but is never given a real chance to root for any of them—we never see how their relationship develops, how it grows, how feelings are born between them. Instead, we are simply informed: “these two love each other, you should root for them.” There is no chemistry between the main characters. Every scene is constructed according to the “tell, don’t show” principle, which in a medium like film is frankly insulting to the audience. Perhaps Tsui Hark assumed that absolutely every viewer had read the books, and that it was enough to say “this is the Venom of the West, he is their enemy,” without ever showing the audience why that is the case. But that assumption is a fundamental mistake. A film must stand on its own as a complete work—and this one does not.
I move on with pain to the acting, which I found shockingly disappointing. I consider Xiao Zhan to be a good actor with a natural style of performance. In his earlier works, he was like a breath of fresh air—sincere, genuine, full of emotion. Here, he was a pathetically wooden presence. There was no subtlety whatsoever. The performance hits the viewer over the head with stupidity and pathos. Yes, this may have been the direction chosen by the director for the character, but that only means the actor’s potential was completely wasted. If I had not known Xiao Zhan from his other roles and had seen this film as my first exposure to him, I would have assumed he wasn’t an actor at all, just a wooden log dressed in a costume.
Do I know what kind of personality any of the characters in this film actually has? No. Do I remember any specific scene from this film three days after watching it? Only vaguely, and not in full. Did this film have any positive aspects at all? Both female actors were beautiful and clearly tried their best, but with material like this, they had nothing to work with.
My positive points go exclusively to the costumes, the horses, Khan, and both female actors. And yes—even though his role was poorly written, Bayaertu truly showed class.
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I really loved their pairing, their chemistry is just amazing ❤️
This movie truly touched my heart ❤️ The story was beautiful, emotional, and engaging from start to finish. The acting was absolutely amazing, especially the main leads—they brought their characters to life so perfectly.Every scene felt meaningful, and the chemistry between the leads was just magical ✨ The music and visuals made the experience even more special. I didn’t feel bored for a single moment.
This is definitely one of my favorite movies, and I would love to watch it again. Highly recommended to everyone who loves emotional and meaningful stories 💖
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One of a kind! Worth watching!
Guess you can say I watched this movie because of Xiao Zhan, but then again, after completely watching the film, I can tell you with utmost confidence that not only the movie is awesome - because XZ is acting in it - but the entire movie / story line is amazing! A lot of action and fighting, with a little tiny bit of romance, but the story is amazing! XZ really did a great job - from the tan line till the goofiness of his in certain parts, it was an amazing way of him blending in with all the various kinds of roles he plays. Anyways, back to this movie, I find that all the actors and actresses did a very good job in bringing this movie to life. They all played their roles very well and this movie turned out to be extremely awesome, if you are looking for an action packed movie. Not only that, I get to listen to different types of dialects / languages from China.The songs paired to this movie is also quite interesting and nice to listen to.
A first watch is highly recommended. The re-watch would have to see if you really enjoyed yourself watching it for the first time.
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This review may contain spoilers
Nada além de um bom filme de domingo
Minha régua para cinema é assumidamente ingrata, porque sou movido a contexto, detalhe e circunstância, justamente aquilo que um filme de 90 a 120 minutos raramente consegue oferecer sem atropelos. Ainda assim, tento ser justo. Cheguei a este filme muito mais por Xiao Zhan, de quem sou fã declarado, do que por qualquer promessa de densidade narrativa. E, dentro do possível, a produção acerta em escolhas importantes. O uso do idioma mongol, sem a comodidade artificial de colocar todos falando a mesma língua, revela um respeito cultural que merece ser destacado. Não cabe aqui julgar pronúncia, mas a decisão em si já qualifica a obra. O início é apressado, com acontecimentos jogados em sequência e alguns flashbacks reduzidos a texto, mas a narrativa se mantém compreensível e segue em frente sem me perder pelo caminho.Visualmente, o filme se sustenta melhor do que tropeça. A caracterização dos personagens e a cenografia funcionam muito bem e ajudam a dar corpo ao universo apresentado. O CGI, por outro lado, é irregular, às vezes simplista demais, quase primitivo, mas sem chegar ao ponto de comprometer a experiência como um todo. Fica mais como um registro técnico do que como um problema real. O final parece deliberadamente fechado, reforçado pela canção que acompanha os protagonistas, sinalizando que não há ambição de continuidade. No saldo final, é exatamente isso: um bom filme de domingo, honesto dentro de suas limitações e confortável naquilo que se propõe a entregar.
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Adattamento cinematografico del primo libro della trilogia “Condor” di Jin Yong, se proprio vogliamo trovarne un difetto, è quello di condensare una grande quantità di concetti in sole due ore e mezzo.
Lo spettatore deve sempre mantenere alta la concentrazione durante i dialoghi, perché ogni informazione risulta essere necessaria e fondamentale ai fini della trama. In alcuni punti accorre in aiuto dello spettatore una voce fuori campo che spiega e riassume alcune vicende accadute in precedenza. Ci sarebbero stati talmente tanti contenuti da poterne fare un drama, quindi non sorprende minimamente il minutaggio dell’opera. Nonostante questo, e nonostante la durata, il film non risulta mai pesante, anzi, si lascia seguire con piacere, catturando lo spettatore grazie alla bellezza degli effetti speciali e alla fotografia.
Ho apprezzato il fatto che i Mongoli non sono rappresentati come il “popolo invasore cattivo”. Il protagonista è nato in Cina, ma cresciuto nelle praterie del popolo mongolo e non rinnega nessuna delle sue due origini. Ogni popolazione ha le sue ragioni, giuste o sbagliare che possano sembrare.
Straordinari tutti gli attori. Ho particolarmente apprezzato le due figure femminili, innamorate entrambe del protagonista e gelose al punto giusto. Nella recitazione, tuttavia, spicca su tutti l’attore protagonista, Xiao Zhan. Lui ha già dato prova di essere un attore eccezionale, eppure riesce ogni volta a stupire per la sua continua crescita: è riuscito a interpretare il personaggio di Guo Jing, che durante il film affronta una grande crescita caratteriale. All’inizio dell’opera vediamo un protagonista ingenuo e avventato, ma col passare delle vicende diventa sempre più maturo e sicuro. L’espressività di Xiao Zhan e il suo sguardo hanno fatto il resto: Guo Jing riesce in ogni fotogramma a trasmettere il profondo senso di giustizia che anima il suo personaggio.
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Legend Of The Cordor Heroes
Cerita yang bagus, akting dari pemerannya juga sangat indah. CGI yang memanja mata serta sangat recommended untuk ditonton. Xiao Zhan di drama ini sangat keren, dia ber akting dengan sangat indah. Saya sangat suka dengan alur ceritanya karena tidak berbelit-belit❤️.Burung rajawali di sini terlihat sangat nyata, entah lah, efek cgi nya sangat keren. Sound efek ya juga sangat bagus. Saya kira awalnya bakal membosan kan, tetapi ternyata malah melebih i ekspektasi, alurnya sangat seru.
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