How a CG movie can be released eight years after the video game it’s based on and have significantly worse graphics, not to mention story and characterisation, is unfathomable.

Yet Heavenly Sword is just that. The visuals are distractingly lacklustre, producing a series of stilted, cold, and uninspired inaction pieces, as if PlayStation’s movie wing haven’t heard of their next-gen console’s performance potential.

To continue the sensory sacrilege, insipid voice work gives the awful, one-dimensional characters dire-logue to spew relentlessly.

There is nothing worthy here; for a film centred around a massive sword, it’s hard to see the point.

Heavenly Sword plays like the rough, unfinished cutscenes of a game, inexpertly stitched together, with none of the player engagement in between. Press X to escape this hell.

RATING: 1/5

INFORMATION

CAST: (Voices of) Anna Torv, Alfred Molina, Ashleigh Ball, Nolan North, Barry Dennen, Thomas Jane

DIRECTOR: Gun Ho Jang

WRITER: Todd Farmer

SYNOPSIS: In this video game adaptation, Nariko (Torv) is charged with bringing a sword to a deity reincarnated who will bring peace to the land, but Bohan (Molina) wishes to possess the weapon himself.

A preview screening of Heavenly Sword was kindly provided by TriCoast UK and Clout Communications Ltd.