With poor, corny dialogque script and with poor action stunt want to mixep up ip man and the kind of old schoold kungfu movie like taichi master in 1993 portrait by jet li, is no clarity what kind of action donnie yen want as a director. And the movie sound track mellow sentimental is not in the right place/scene and too much where's between the character just met and want to make audience feel sympathy but for me is justvexaggerate corny. Donnie yen want to make this movie like kinda avengers super heroes and DC batman super heroes, wheres one of scene is shallow and try to copy nolan batman.
Plot summary
When a respected martial artist is accused of killing, he goes around in search of answers about his own mysterious origin story and the unknown enemies working to destroy him.
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Boring & predictable
Poorly directed, incoherent storyline and cheesy dialogues
Donnie Yen needs to stick to acting and not directing. The direction was sloppy and incoherent, the storyline was all over the place and the dialogues were cheesy.
The characters lacked depth and development, which made it hard to keep track of the plot. A new actress, Ah Zi which happened to be an important character was only introduced in 1h30m hrs in the movie and the whole introduction was rushed with lame fight scenes. Why would someone decided to attack their daughter and then tried to mend back in the next scene. Nonsensical. The fight scenes were poorly choreographed and were not believable at all. The special effects were also underwhelming, and didn't really add anything to the movie.
The actors seemed to be struggling to remember their lines and filling it with cheese conversations. Some humors were attempted but largely failed at capturing the dynamics; The whole love scene also felt awkward with no chemistry, more like a daughter-father relationship. Don't even mention the ridiculous scene where Donnie Yen brings her for treatment but ended up knocking everyone's teeth off. The entire movie felt like a low budget production. The editing was terrible as well and the movie felt like it was rushed with a concoction of fast and slow pace without consistency.
Overall, this was an incredibly disappointing movie and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
The actions are GREAT!! BUT it's a little long and rushed at times!
It is an adaptation of the "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils," from Jin Yong's Wuxia novel. Well, the storyline is pretty simple and straightforward, very much like KungFu Cult Master, whereby the main character is accused of many incidents, and all sects attempt to kill him, and that's where the fight starts and ends.
The pace is alright, packed with action, BUT it could be slow at certain parts! I thought it had ended several times, but it keeps going with a runtime of 130 minutes!
In terms of actions, I like it very much! You could feel the strengths and forces of every hit, and the CGI has enhanced the visual excitement to another level! They really did a great job of combining the "wirework + CGI" and martial arts into a more effective action movie.
A few drawbacks as follows:
Firstly, the movie slows down due to the relationship between Qiao Feng and A Zhu. Yet, it's NOT well managed in such a way that it disrupts the flow and momentum of the movie!
Secondly, Donnie Yen appears to be only good in action, BUT not in romance! There is no spark of chemistry between Qiao Feng and A Zhu! Donnie's acting is rather stiff when it comes to intimate moments with A Zhu. Somehow it's more like a father-daughter relationship than a lover's.
Thirdly, the sub-plot in the 2nd half is rather odd, especially on the introduction of new characters of A Zu's parents and her rebellious sister. It could be due to time constraints, things are rushing off, so it does not gel well to the overall movie and looks disconnected!
Finally, with the ending, we could predict that there may be Part 2 in future. Since it will be a sequel, why NOT break this movie into 2 decent movies, instead of rushing everything out, causing an uneven focus on some details. Also I believe that audiences could enjoy it better, rather than having watched a lengthy movie without proper addresses of some plots.
I gave 6/ 10. Despite the weaknesses above, it's an ok movie for casual entertainment. As said, I love the action and fighting scenes, with the right speed, strength, and force! A watch-able one for this Chinese New Year! Go, Go, Go!!