Man am I glad I didn't see this in theaters. When I first saw the trailer I thought this could've been cool, and parts of it were (mainly the costumes and sets and Crowe) but to me this felt like an elaborate fan film. It's as if Rza got done working on Kill Bill and thought to himself "I'M GONNA DO MY OWN KILL BILL" except it's not nearly as exciting or polished. I agree with all those who say that casting himself as the lead was a mistake. Crowe outshined everyone by far and even the guy who felt like the co-lead (X-Blade) still fell extremely flat (I never cared for Ricky Yune anyway).
If Rza wanted to do a kung fu flick for his directional debut, he probably should've done something on a smaller scale and not cast himself as the lead. Rza isn't photogenic and he looked bored most of the time. Wiki also said he spent 1 to 2 hours a day for 2 months training in Hung Ga for the film, but it looked like he barely knew the basics. If he wanted a black man as the lead he would've been better of with someone like Michael Jai White who not only looks great on camera, but has trained in martial arts for a long time.
Anyway, the only redeemable parts of this movie are (again) the costumes, set pieces, the weapons, Crowe, Liu, and Batista going bronze every once in a while. I didn't even dig the music, which was a shame because I enjoyed what he did for Kill Bill. Everything, other than what I mentioned, was pretty boring.