Netflix just dropped a gorgeous trailer for its new sequel to the iconic martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon—but the first look at Sword of Destiny has some fans breathing fire.
The trailer, which features a menacing synthpop cover of “Bad Moon Rising” from Palestra, shows off plenty of the highly stylized and memorable fighting sequences fans loved in the first film, along with sweeping vistas to entice fans to view the film in IMAX theaters come February.
But there’s one thing fans have been asking: Why does Sword of Destiny appear to be in English?
The film stars Michelle Yeoh reprising her role as Yu Shu-Lien from the original film; but numerous fans pointed out, both in comments to the trailer and elsewhere across the Web, that the incongruity of Yeoh’s character suddenly speaking English does not follow the source material.
Whoa Whoa Whoa, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2 is in ENGLISH? That’s some buuuuuuulllllllll shiiiiiiiiiiit. @netflix
— Sean Novicki (@SeanNovicki) December 7, 2015
I was excited about the @Netflix Crouching Tiger debut until I saw the trailer and saw that the characters are SPEAKING ENGLISH. WHYYYY.
— Michael J. Miraflor (@michaelmiraflor) December 7, 2015
The amount of CGI in the film polarized viewers, but the amount of English was something many of them seemed to agree on:
new crouching tiger trailer looks terrible. what’s with all the CGI? and that terrible song? also why are they speaking english???
— Jake (@jacobkleinman) December 7, 2015
Really hope the CTHD sequel is as good as it looks. But did it *have* to be in English? https://t.co/ILh1Rjt64y
— Michi: Adorable Tiny Demon 🔥🇵🇭🇺🇸🍜📖🦄 (@GeekMelange) December 7, 2015
Still, with Netflix and IMAX both banking on the film’s success, the trailer might be turning enough heads to make the movie theaters that refused to show it regret their decision.
Oh yes! I love well executed visually overwhelming Wire Fu martial-arts! Can’t wait to see… https://t.co/Qr8A4rQk1d https://t.co/fp2CeiwCS3
— Hayo (@Haay1971) December 7, 2015
The film releases on Netflix and in IMAX theaters Feb. 26.
Screengrab via Netflix/YouTube
