I think a lot of people just love badly plotted Hong Kong films with cheesy, unconvincing action. The ecstatic reviews here for this movie are proof of that. But I don't just like cheesy movies simply because they are cheesy, and need a basic level of competence to enjoy something.
The story, which is a mishmash of loosely strung together ideas that don't make any particular sense, involves three women with martial arts skills. One is in thrall to an evil weirdo, one helps the cops out, and the most interesting, played by Maggie Cheung, is a brassy mercenary. They fight, they team up, they make speeches, and it's all just terrible.
A lot of the user reviews say that, whatever the lack of merit in the story, the film is redeemed by its great action scenes. To which I reply, huh?
The action is terrible. That scene people seem to love where "wonder woman" runs along telephone wires? It's completely unconvincing; poor wire-fu that is unconvincing even without that discipline. Using slow-mo and quick shots, there's little indication that anyone has any martial arts experience (except Cheung, who looks pretty good), and you could easily cast grade-school children in the roles and get the same effect.
If movies like Hero represent how amazing wire-fu action can be, The Heroic Trio just as ably represents how poorly it can be done.
The one ingenious moment in the film, the final fight, is undone by some of the most terrible special effects I have ever seen in the history of motion pictures. Seriously, I've seen better special effects in films by high school students.
The three actresses are pretty and probably can act (I saw a reasonably competently dubbed version, which means I can't really judge the acting), but the script and the action make this a complete waste of time. Unless you just want to see something really, really cheesy, in which case this is definitely the movie for you.
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