Review of The Grandmaster (2013) by Kevin C — 21 Sep 2013

Aregghhhh I just wrote a pretty long review of this movie but it didn't save!!!

Here's the cliff notes:

Good:

-Cool fights.

-North/South martial arts faction.

-Zhang Ziyi's Gong Er's plot.

-Different (actual) styles highlighted.

Not Good:

-Too 'artsy'.

-Too much slow motion.

-Too much of people staring (often in slow motion).

-Ip Man's plot was super boring and basically had no plot.

-Main characters have no chemistry.

-Main characters' plots don't really mesh well.

-Super jarring editing.

-Super jarring time skips with amateurish text crawls.

Weird:

-Fights with no fighting.

-Korean actress playing Ip Man's Chinese wife in a Chinese movie.

Final Verdict:

If you want to see an 'artsy' Drive-like martial arts movie where some fights consist of nothing more than people staring at each other, this is for you. If you want a more action oriented Ip Man story, go with the Donnie Yen movies.