Jet Li's Fearless dvd review:
This is Jet Li's last martial arts movie. Yeah really im serious. Thats what he claimed at least. But come to think of it Stephen King claimed to have retired about 4 books back and Too Short is on album 16 after he also claimed to have retired after album number 10. So who knows if he's gonna unretire or at least do the movie he promised with Jackie Chan. Well if this is his last one i can honestly say he went out with a bang for the most part. I had heard a lot of negative things about the movie in general. I personally think it had higher expectations probably due to his so called last action movie and also that it was gonna be a period piece directed by Ronny Yu. Im a huge Jet Li fan and own pretty much every film he's ever done except for maybe one or two. While i prefer realistic based fighting without wires like old school flicks and most of Jackie's movies i still like a dose of wirefu every now and then. Jet Li has always been the master of wire fighting and he keeps up the tradition in this movie too. I would definitely put this above everything he's done since arriving in America with Lethal Weapon 4 with the exception of maybe Danny the Dog aka Unleashed. The movie is basically the life story of one of China's greatest kung fu masters not named Wong Fei Hung. His character started the Wu Jing school that is still around in many countries to this date. Its a basic good guy gets knocked down, re-evaluates life and then comes back with a vengeance story. Strong dramatic elements but still its a kung fu flick at heart but done with a lot of care and soul to it.
Heres a break down of the good and bad. The Good: The pacing and editing was excellent. Only one stretch towards the middle was it drama heavy with no action but even that went pretty smooth with only necessary plot advancement pacing. There was a lot of action. Most of the fights were reminiscent to mid 90's wirefu like iron monkey but it never got too over the top or ridiculous. Jet's battle with a guy up on top of a huge platform and his battle with a master in a restaurant were the best fights of the whole movie. The set's and cinemotography looked authentic with great dashes of cgi mixed in at the right places. The not so good: The ending battle was anti climatic but the dramatic elements and music were right on cue. Since it was based on a true story i wish it would have been based on true fighting techniques and not that much wirefu.
Overall not too much to criticize and i had a blast watching the movie. Definitely check it out on August 4th when it comes to theaters or at least on dvd in a few months. I give it a solid.8.9