71.   The climactic battle scenes, while transparently fake, have been staged with an operatic twilight-of-the-gods panache.

72.   The battle scene at stage right shows them petrified within a bas-relief.

73.   The battle scenes are as fierce and brutal as the reality of bladed warfare, so the movie is not for kids or the squeamish.

74.   The battle scenes are pure comic-book derring-do replete with acrobatics borrowed from Hong Kong action thrillers and continual morphing.

75.   The dialogue is real, the battle scenes are terrific.

76.   The choreographed battle scene at the end, in particular, is beautifully done.

77.   The film drops these weather-related scenes and substitutes battle scenes that for all their dazzle have less magic.

78.   The frantic battle scene, from which Z emerges an unlikely hero, may be too frightening for very young viewers.

79.   The great battle scenes are rendered with a power and grisly horror both increased and made oddly transparent by a freshness and innocence of diction.

80.   The gory battle scenes alone are worth the film, which is at heart an old-fashioned epic.