How fortunate for John Woo that warfare in third-century China appears to have had so much to do with hurtling fireballs.

Fans of Woo thrillers such as Face/Off, Hard Boiledand The Killerwill be happy to hear that, despite the drama moving to the Han Dynasty, his characters continue to spend most of their time fleeing rolling conflagrations. He also manages to include his trademark shots of fluttering doves and plenty of slow-motion. Red Cliffis a John Woo film, all right.

Still, there’s no question that the epic, thrilling picture, released in two parts in Asia, may disappoint those wary of entertainments in which Nicolas Cage doesn’t discharge a bazooka.

Though still somewhat overlong, the picture shows, in its sketchy characterisation, unhappy evidence of its being chopped

down from an even more huge original. We are left with a lot of history and very little plot. Indeed, it would require several supplements to do justice to the machinations detailed in the opening 30 minutes.

Suffice to say the story concerns an attempt by the imperial army to annihilate an independent coalition of forces billeted in an area known as the Red Cliffs. Commanding the emperor’s forces is the ruthless Cao Cao (Zhang Fengyi). The accidental insurgents follow the lead of General Zhao Yun (Tony Leung).

When video games eventually caught up with John Woo, spoilsports accused the master's films of looking like video games. Such an accusation could reasonably be levelled at Red

Cliff, but, rather than Grand Theft Auto or Doom, the film feels like one of those military strategy games which require the player

to tick a dozen boxes before allowing his tiny ships to

advance one square forward. For stretches of half-an-hour or more, we get little else but manoeuvres, tactics and the flinging of fireballs.

None of this is necessarily meant as criticism. Woo lays out the action with admirable clarity and the details of ancient naval lore and military protocol are consistently fascinating. By the film’s close, I felt that, with a little help from a friendly army, I could mount my own assault on a rural fortress.

Directed by John Woo Starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Vicki Zhao, Hu Jun

15A cert, limited release, 148 min