1911 is a film released to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the Chinese revolution and it is also advertised as the hundredth film starring Jackie Chan, who has been taking more dramatic roles as he gets older. The film is now playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
The film is advertised as being a war epic, but I would be more inclined to call it a docudrama, since there is much more talking than fighting in the film. The film will definitely be an exercise to those not used to subtitles. Not only is the dialogue subtitled (which, strangely, includes scenes that are in English), but there are also lengthy intertitles providing narration, as well as captions naming every single new character introduced in the film. It gets a bit much and I actually missed a couple lines of dialogue trying to read everything.
The story of the film was interesting enough, though it seemed fragmented at times and the, nearly 2 hour, running time dragged a bit. I was sort of hoping that it was a bit more action-packed, since I thought that the battle scenes (including one scene where Jackie Chan gets to use his martial arts skills) were the best part of the film.
Overall, despite the shortcomings, I thought it was a decent enough film.
7/10