Surely this movie should have been called Tai Chi Zero and the original Tai Chi Hero. Read on to find out why this sequel does not live up to its name.
Forgive me people; I know
it’s been a while. Things have been
pretty busy in the run up to Christmas.
Popped over to Beijing last week to finally set eyes on The Forbidden
City and the Great Wall of China, pretty breathtaking stuff. Now I’m back in Singapore and it’s business
as usual.
Tai Chi Hero opened last week
in what was for me one of the biggest movie disappointments in recent memory.
I was a pretty huge fan of
the first movie giving it a very respectable four flaming skulls score. It was fresh, exciting and left me highly
anticipating the sequel, keen to know the outcome of our protagonists exploits.
Alas, all the magic in the
first movie appears to have vanished into the ether for this sequel. I have no idea what happened.
The movie starts off where
the first finished. It is forbidden for
Chen style Kung Fu to be taught to any outsiders of the village, so when Yang
Lu Chan learns Chen style Kung Fu simply by observing and fighting the
villagers, he is deemed to have illegally stolen the Kung Fu. To save him and in gratitude for everything
he has done, Angelababy takes Lu Chan as her husband.
Things are not smooth sailing
however as Master Chen's long lost son mysteriously returns and Fang Zijing is
still seeking revenge following the first movie.
The problem is that the movie
just doesn’t have the drive, flare and energy the first movie did. The entire sub-plot featuring Master Chen's
long lost son, although interesting, just feels like something thrown in to
pass the time until we reach our finale.
Our main villain is still Fang Zijing but whereas he seemed to be a
remorseful and at times relatable to villain in the fist movie, he is a purely
comic book villain in this and quickly becomes very annoying.
There is very little real martial
arts action in this and the final climax of the movie was depressingly
underwhelming. With Prodigal Son Yuen
Biao facing off against our hero in the finale, I was starting to get my hopes
up again only to have them quashed once more.
So much potential for a memorable final fight, a martial arts movie
legend versus a potential martial arts maestro in the making completely wasted.
Even the fantastic Angelababy
was seemingly demoted from a pivotal powerful character in the first movie to
something more akin to a damsel in distress in this.
Everything that made the
first movie so memorable was completely missing from this lackluster
sequel. There are moments where you see
glimpses of what made the first movie great but the sequel never follows through,
which makes things even more frustrating.
Towards the end Yang Lu Chan has to defeat 7 or so bosses in true video
gaming style but the fights are never shown, we only get to see a short clip of
Lu Chan winning each time. This is a martial
arts movie, why were the fights not shown??
I don’t know. Such a shame to see
such potential wasted.
I recommend you watch Tai Chi
Zero as a standalone entity and give this a miss.
Rating 2.5/5 (Gets an extra
point thanks to the great Angelababy)
Bobby
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