The Eight Hundred bites off more that it can chew but it consistently serves up gripping filmmaking on the biggest canvas.

"The Eight Hundred" fetishizes martyrdom, but for those seeking big-screen, epic violence, it's pretty much the only game in town.

Guan goes hammer and tongs with the special effects, delivering stupendously, joint-rattlingly-loud battle scenes and combat sequences edited to the lightning pace of a superhero movie.

In the end you’ve got a jaw-dropping spectacle for the eye and ear and a flag-waving paen to bravery, but a dead end in terms of personal human drama. Well, sometimes you just take what you can get.