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Cast: Stephen Rahman-Hughes, Gavin Stenhouse, Jing Lusi, Rahim Razali, Ummi Nazeera
The mighty, warring forces of Rome, China, and Malaysia collide in this unforgettable, action-packed epic. In 120 AD, a warrior and descendant of Alexander the Great named Merong is tasked with accompanying a Roman prince through the dangerous regions of Asia ruled by the expanding Han Dynasty. Their destination: a beautiful princess whose kidnapping sets them on a course that will alter the fate of the entire world.
"Clash of Empires" is a Malaysian action film based on real history about Langkasuka. For starters don't expect some big budget epic here, it's an epic but the budget is much lower than you might expect and it shows through out the film. In fact the film suffers in many areas from acting at times, fight scenes and some of the cgi isn't very good either. I mention all this because it's best to have lower expectations going into the film instead of being disappointed.
The story is told in a way to make it easy to follow, Roman Prince Marcus Carprenius set to wed the Chinese Princess Meng Li Hua in a deal to seal two separate empires into an alliance. The wedding is to take place at the mid point between the east-west sea routes of the empires, which would be where modern day Peninsular Malaysia is but of course. However, the young royals fail to see the merits of any loveless, arranged marriage, before finally casting their eye on each other and discovering they share similar long term ideals. But the Geruda tribe is to gatecrash the wedding day with plans of their own for riches by capturing and holding the Princess hostage, and it's up to our heroes to train, form an armada of brave men to take the enemy down within two moons, or risk having the Princess violated then killed.
If you never been into Asian films before then you might be able to over look the films obvious flaws and you might enjoy the film over all but if you're a fan of anything Asian I think you might be a bit disappointed here. Some of the fight scenes are done well and the cgi used early on in the film is pretty good as well but it seems to lose quality later maybe because of budget reasons. The acting was iffy as well, some of the cast did a really good job and others were hard to watch.
HERE and the Blu-ray HERE.
Released by Image Entertainment
** Out Of *****