Red Cliff marks the return of John Woo to American movie theaters after a hiatus of several years. Does anyone even remember the last Woo movie they went to see? At a cost of nearly $80 million, this epic film has all the classic Woo signatures (the doves, the slow motion shots, etc.) that his fans have come to expect, but the question is, Does a film based on the historical Chinese novel the Romance of Three Kingdoms register with action fans here in the States, who, for the most part, have never heard of it?

During my college days, I studied the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and the scale of it quite simply overwhelmed me. The hundreds, if not thousands, of characters involved in the trials and tribulations of nation-building proved too much for my freshman mind to handle. Fortunately, Mr. Woo has decided to focus on one particular event depicted in the book, the Battle at Red Cliff. Everything the audience needs to know about the story is quite neatly summed up in the opening narration, which allows Woo to then jump straight into the battle sequences without leaving his audience wondering what the heck is going on.

Let me just say that after Paycheck, I seriously began to doubt John Woo as a director. In fact, I saw Paycheck on DVD, and it wasn’t more than ten minutes into watching it that I began to feel terribly sorry for my friend who actually laid out good money to buy the thing for us to view. The movie was just too painful to watch, especially from a man who gave us The Killer and A Bullet in the Head. I had almost completely lost hope for Woo, but Red Cliff reaffirmed my faith in his ability to think big and then execute (in all meanings of the word) with panache.

Remember the impressive first battle scene in Gladiator? Well, Red Cliff surpasses it by miles. Filming the battle scenes is where Woo appears to have spent the bulk of his $80 million, and it was certainly money well spent. The multiple battle scenes in Red Cliff made my jaw drop not only from the complexity of the shoot but the duration. It is visually stunning, with the overhead camera shots capturing the thousands of extras and God knows how many horses. One just marvels at his skill at filming men/weapons/animals in motion. The action choreography appears so dangerous that you’re thinking how many stunt people were hurt during filming.

If you were wondering about explosions (and what would a John Woo film be without explosions?), Woo gives you plenty of pyrotechnics during the final battle. More fire than the burning of Atlanta in Gone with the Wind! And for those of you who have seen every Woo film, you know what will be in store for you at the end with regard to the protagonists.

For those who care more about the acting, solid performances from all. I am a big fan of Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, so it is hard for me to be critical about any role that he inhabits. One surprise, at least for me, is the rather substantive female role of Xiao Qiao, the wife of the Tony Leung character, Zhou Yu. Woo has never really done well with the female roles, and this is a praiseworthy exception. In many of the movies, women seem to be an afterthought getting in the way of the more crucial male roles, which are used to explore the themes of brotherhood and loyalty. In Red Cliff, Xiao Qiao plays a pivotal part during the finale of the movie, strongly suggesting that Woo is evolving as a filmmaker.

Although the movie runs about two and a half hours, it didn’t feel too long to me at all. Red Cliff is a thoroughly entertaining movie signifying the triumphant return of a master action filmmaker. Paycheck? Never heard of it.