In anticipation of the DVD release of Man of Tai Chi in the US tomorrow a new volley of reviews and articles are appearing. Jon Partridge wrote an interesting piece for Cinapse. He started by giving a synopsis of the film. With respect to the film in general he had the following to say:
Man of Tai Chi is a accomplished directorial debut from Reeves. The fight sequences are intense and impressive, wire work yes, but there is a lack of any flashy additions. The story is not complex, but delivers well and is quickly paced. Tiger Chen does an admirable job even though he doesn’t have much dialogue, but his reactions and conflict come across well.
In an interesting turn of events, Mr. Partridge draws parallels between Man of Tai Chi and Star Wars. He finishes with the following:
As a martial arts movie, Man of Tai Chi is an entertaining distraction. The fight scenes are engaging enough, and the cheese quota is sufficiently high to make it a fun viewing. Reeves puts in a great turn as a scenery chewing villain, whether he intended to or not, and his directorial debut is solidly accomplished. But in my mind, with a script adaptation, and dubbing over of Keanu Reeve’s voice by Ian McDiarmid and the addition of lightsabers, it could have been the Star Wars prequel we all deserved!
The review is here.