Review of Ip Man 3 (2015) by Clem666 — 11 Apr 2021

I didn't expect this franchise to try something new since we already are at the third instalment of the 'Ip Man' saga. With such low expectations I was not disappointed.

The first scene is really dumb and drafty even if Bruce Lee's lookalike is more than correct. It's a shame that he doesn't appear more in the movie even if he has way more space in 'Ip Man 4: The Finale'. Seeing Mike Tyson in here was a pleasant surprise but his acting is not even better than Donnie Yen's (Ip Man). As Tyson seems to pursue an effortless and predictable acting, Yen in his side is satisfied by its totally boring placidity and emotional impassivity. By the way Tyson's plan (I mean the villain's plan) is really stupid and inconsistent. Several characters with varied bad intentions make the scenario look really drafty and incomplete. In overall the turns of events are truly predictable all along even if the logic of 'Ip Man 3' is quite strange from time to time. Fortunately the scenarists took some time to eventually give some depth to Ip Man's wife who especially appears to be the star of this feature. The plot around her and the couple is interesting and bring some variety in what we are used to see in a 'Ip Man' movie. Some scenes honestly are moving.

However about two thirds of the way through the film the rhythm breaks down and becomes quite annoying. Special effects are okay in general. Some fighting scenes are quite weird even if choregraphies are great. I guess they couldn't prevent themselves to insert some truly ineffective and terrible combat moves here and there.

As always I appreciate the way the movie combines real historic facts and fiction but here it looks like they took too much freedom as some events don't match at all with past reality.