Excessively fake action and an angst-fueled plot

Rating: 3/10 (28 October 2019)

As is standard for Kung Fu films, the most notable part is the action. Most of the fight scenes were exciting, and it was interesting to see some of the crazy Kung Fu abilities. However, every action sequence was marred by the incredibly unrealistic weightless floating around that everyone did. Not only was it unrealistic, it also wasn't always choreographed very well, made all too apparent by the desperate scrambling the characters did as they flailed their limbs while the guidewires carried them. It didn't make them look like they were in control of their own actions, which is odd for a genre so heavily focused on self-mastery. Despite this, the action did still have cool moments whenever the guidewires were detached.
On the other hand, there was nothing good about the plot. The story was so convoluted in the beginning with massive amounts of backstory that had to be told way too quickly in order to fit it all in a reasonable runtime. As a result, there were far too many "speak of the devil" coincidences in the movie's first act. The second act was a decent love story. I think the relationship turned into love unrealistically quickly, but it wasn't outright bad. Then the third act happens, and we realize just how stupid the story actually is. Everything boils down to an angsty girl who has everything she needs, including the means to achieve everything she's ever wanted. Instead, her angst drives her to throw everything away and try her hardest to become the region's biggest edgelord while her lover and her new parental figures wonder where they went wrong. She is the central plot element, and it's hard to see anything good in a story when the plot's very center is entirely unlikable.