The first time I saw this film (on the big screen, lucky me) I left the theater pretty unimpressed. The first twenty minutes made my jaw drop; "finally," I thought, "they came up with special effects that can do Tsui Hark's imagination justice." However, at some point it became apparent that the movie wasn't going to offer much more than special effects, and the film doesn't move towards much of a climax, since the whole film (I would estimate at LEAST half the shots) is saturated with CG effects.

Eventually, I gave it another chance, and I can enjoy the movie for what it is now, which is nothing more or less than the most technically advanced- and one of the most beautiful- films HK has ever produced. It all gets a little old by about minute 70, and it's disappointing that Tsui didn't match the technical sophistication with the emotionally-involving storytelling he's capable of- but I think it deserves watching as a landmark technical achievment. It is far superior to its genre-mate The Storm Riders in terms of both effects, pacing, and acting; the earlier film was dull and full of bad performances and boring characters, whereas Zu doesn't slow down long enough to even bother with characters and subplots.

I remember when I saw the original Zu with a friend, we agreed it was just too "busy" to be enjoyable, and that it might've been better if the effects that took up so much of the film had at least been good. That's exactly what the updated film is; still as busy and overwhelming as ever, but at least it looks cool this time.