What's with all the bad reviews? One thing we can all agree with is that LEGEND OF THE FIST: THE RETURN OF CHEN ZHEN ain't perfect and well executed as one would think otherwise. But a bad movie? I can certainly say that hype had alot to do with it and everyone seemed to go way off track expecting something much greater. But to each one's own, just see the movie and judge for yourself. As for me, I liked it alot.
There's alot happening in the movie and the makers doesn't waste time pinpointing the story, the characters, the political/military movements, all the motives etc. However, the script (by Gordon Chan who also produced the movie) was problematic and left room for some plot holes and logics, some of which can be seen as deleted scenes on the Hong Kong DVD. And then you have the usual story structure found in many recent HK/Chinese co-productions involving foreign countries, as expected. Chinese patriotism, check. Foreigners depicted as nothing but bad guys, check. Nothing bad about the Chinese, check. Everything about the foreigners is bad, check. It's boring now. But luckily, Andrew Lau and Gordon Chan provide real intensity between everyone and in everything and letting the violence be led in the story and maintain all the enjoyment instead of further exploring the whole anti-foreign thing and drag things, with good twists for China as well as bad ones for the ones in question.
The movie's filming style is particularly spectacular. Sets/art direction, costume design, cinematography/lighting, music/sound, CG (some bad-looking scenes though). Everything is spot on. Plus this is a big-budget production allowing many things for greater effect which succeeds mostly. Acting and casting is good as well but because the movie clocks at around 106 min, there's not enough to let you know more about many characters in the movie beside Donnie Yen, Shu Qi, Anthony Wong and Ryu Kohata (from Lu Chuan's CITY OF LIFE & DEATH). Like Chen Zhen's comrades, Kiki's friends or the Japanese spies. Donnie pulled off all he has learned so far and it's a good transition from his old days and a nice way to see progression from him but otherwise there's nothing peculiar from him here. His acting is good but it's far from a stand-out performance (like in the IP MAN movies and BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS). Shu Qi ain't bad herself either and has some demanding scenes toward the ending which were impressive but other than that, she plays it straight and natural as always. Everyone else (including good ol' Anthony Wong who doesn't get alot to do that's worth mentioning) are just fillers and are there to create space and mood.
In terms of the action, the action choreography lives up to its' hype except that the editing could've been much better. Something tells me that, due to his ever growing popularity as an actor and movie offers, Donnie had to back off from the editing process which explains the sometimes clumsy result on someone else's responsibility. Nevertheless, I still love every action scene (apart from the finale, it's just ok), quite a bit more now actually. Donnie's progressing and exploring as an action director after each production and, despite the heavy IP MAN influence and a bit of rehashing from older movies in the choreography, the movie is yet another fine accomplishment of his, with the intro sequence (taking place in 1917's war-torn France) being the best one in the whole movie. But as many would say, Donnie Yen has yet to top his works on FLASH POINT and SPL which we all want to see happen. I'll keep my fingers crossed and see what he will do next in the future.
Reviewer Score: 7
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