[Locke]

So I've been trying to get back into movies again, so I decided to check out the Man of Tai Chi. I'll be honest, I've...never heard this, and as a lover of martial arts movies and this being Reeves (an actor I greatly admire) directorial debut, I'm surprised it was able to sneak up on me in the way it has.

Just because a film is deliberately slow, doesn't somehow make it any more interesting because of it. When The Man of Tai Chi comes together, when the camera zooms out and we see the big picture, it's an impressively jaw dropping moment. But my God is it a slog to get there.

Tiger's opponents are near consistently entertaining, bringing a wide range of styles into the fights, all of which are very entertaining to watch. Tiger himself sadly, isn't nearly as interesting. The whole point is Tiger fights with a style built on control, not intended for offence, and as the film progresses he loses the control his style is built on and descends into greater and greater brutality. This is fine from a storytelling point of view, but visually, you have to wait until nearly the hour mark hits before Tiger gives us a truly impressive fight.

Probably the biggest problem with the action though is a lack of consistency, the film bobs and weaves with no sense of reason or purpose between the fantastical and the real, as characters defy physics and use superpowers before switching back to statically, slowly fighting like we're watching a live martial arts match before going back into crazy wirefu. This blend just doesn't work, it makes the fantastical elements feel more ridiculous while the more realistic elements more boring.

However, the greatest problem with this film is its lack of originality. The core, bigger picture story, of the loss of innocence is solid and beautifully crafted flipping some of the most tired aspects of the genre on its head. But it seems unnecessary to bog down the film with so many clichés. These were obvious, intentional red herrings, but much like with the pacing, just because it's intentional doesn't make it any more interesting for it.

Even Reeves plays it safe with himself, giving his character zero emotions to try and act around. Hell at some points he even wears an extra, expressionless mask, that I can't work out if it is meant to be tongue in cheek humour or not.