For those unfamiliar with “Red Cliff,” here’s a recap. The Red Cliff series is the first Chinese film production John Woo has directed in 16 years. It has a star-studded cast and it’s the biggest-ever Asian-financed film, with a US$80 million budget. The story itself is about one of the best-known and important wars in ancient Chinese history. So yes, expectations among Chinese moviegoers were high—and they most certainly weren’t met last summer with the original “Red Cliff,” a series of long, tedious character studies with no real action. Audiences had to resign themselves to waiting nine months for “Red Cliff 2” before even the faintest whiff of a decent battle scene.

Well, here it is. This, the latest installment to the series, continues the story of the three warlords of the Han dynasty: Liu Bei, Sun Quan and Cao Cao. The two weaker powers, Liu Bei and Sun Quan, have joined forces to overthrow the dominant empire-backed but cold-blooded Cao Cao at the Battle of Red Cliff. But while the battle scenes themselves are magnificent (how could they not be with a budget like that?), everything else seems to fail miserably. We can forgive Woo’s over-simplification of historical events for the sake of the story, but creating an entirely fictional character—Sun Quan commander Zhou Yu’s sister (Zhao Wei), who infiltrates the enemy camp as a male soldier, eventually leading the army to victory—is simply ridiculous. What is this, Disney’s “Mulan”?

Of course, this wouldn’t be a John Woo film without his trademark “gun fu” scene at the movie’s climax (though he has to make do with swords). One wonders if Woo—or the rest of his cast for that matter—has anything new to offer. Leung’s performance is surprisingly unconvincing, while Kaneshiro’s portrayal of Zhuge Liang turns China’s most famous and important war strategist into a clown. Maybe Woo should just stick to brainless action.

2 Stars by Winnie Yeung.

Directed by John Woo. Starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Chang Chen, Lin Chi-ling, Zhao Wei. Category IIB. 142 minutes.