First of all, please do not believe people who tell you this is based on a "true" story. While there is a historical Yang Ye and his son Yang Yanchao, the events of this movie is extremely fictionalized. In fact, the only thing that can be verified to be true is that both Yang Ye and Yang Yanchao existed.
Second, this is the kind of "idol" movie that plagues Chinese cinema nowadays. Yes, the dudes are good looking movie stars and the style looks good. But, substance-wise, there's not much here. There's no distinguishable personality difference about these guys. The common thread is that hey these are handsome and awesome heroes who are all willing to sacrifice themselves (as well as their unfortunate followers) to save their dad.
Anyhow, there's a lot of melodramatic shots of heroism and sacrifice, and the end is an ironic twist to the prediction made by the old mystic man who says "seven sons will go, six will return."
The cinematography and choreography is very well done. Unfortunately, like which many big-budget Asian films, it's more about style than substance. The characters do inexplicably stupid things in the name of honor (and looking cool), and at the end, this little more than a typical brainless waste of 100 minutes.
I gave this a 5 because the fight scenes are very nice, and at least not a mess of CGI. There have been far worse Asian movies out there in recent years, so while I would not recommend this movie, at least it's not an utter disaster.
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