Starring Sun Honglei, Kim Hee-seon, and Jing Tian. In Mandarin with English subtitles. Rated 14A. Now playing at SilverCity Coquitlam, SilverCityRiverport, and Station Square 7.

“It’s beautiful” are the first words you hear in The Warring State, which is fitting considering that, visually at least, director Jin Chen’s historical epic is indeed just that.

Even though you often need a road map to follow the plot, this sweeping look back at Zhou-dynasty China looks gorgeous. Try not to be wowed as military strategist Sun Bin (Sun Honglei) sits perched atop a snow-dusted mountain range with the entire, stunningly tranquil world seemingly at his feet. No less breathtaking are the action sequences, with large-scale battles between China’s Qi and Wei states, the wow factor upped by the fact that you get a beyond-gorgeous blood-thirsty warrior princess (Jing Tian) kicking twice as much ass as the men on the frontlines.

Unfortunately, eye-candy is about all The Warring State has going for it. The film has the leaders of the Qi and Wei states playing a complicated and bloody game of military chess sometime between 476 and 221 B.C. Caught in the middle is Sun Bin, who has supposedly been taught everything there is to know about war by the mythical strategist Sun Wu.

The film’s many problems start with Sun Honglei, who has openly admitted in the press that he had trouble getting a handle on his character. Somewhat confusingly, his Sun Bin comes across as part played-for-laughs simpleton, part lovesick puppy-dog, and part military genius.

What starts out promisingly enough eventually devolves into a Hallmark card melodrama, with rapid-fire editing and freeze-frame action sequences bizarrely at odds with the film’s overall feel. Ultimately, The Warring State ends up a muddled mess, the message being something along the lines of war is hell, especially if you have all the brain wattage of the average village idiot. But hey, at least it looks good.