At the ungodly time of 9:30am (for movie watching, at least), I caught Seven Swords. It was disappointing. Despite his brief foray into Van Damme movies (though, in all fairness, John Woo also fell prey to that), the director, Hark Tsui, is best known for Once Upon a Time in China, which basically introduced Jet Li. That was a real good film. This, not so much.
It was cornball, cliche, and eye-roll inducing. Apart from the very final battle, nothing in this movie was at all memorable. The swords had more character than some of the actors. Had I bothered to fill in my people’s choice ballot (which I haven’t done for any movie, though I regret not doing it for I Am, which was most excellent), I would have given it a 2/5.
I would have to agree with you for the most part. I attended the 3:30pm screening at the Ryerson Theatre (bum sore seating and poor legroom - not fun for 2.5 hours). I enjoyed the film but felt like some parts should have been explored more (differences between the swords etc.) and some should have been cut back or eliminated (korean slave, releasing the horses). I would probably give it a 2/5 as well.