Pretty good.

Rating: 8/10 (24 July 2009)

Watched it without subtitles (or dubbing) which was pretty stupid. But hey, visually it was very cool and obviously the fight scenes didn't have a whole lot of dialogue. Donnie Yen seems pretty tough. One of those cool, wise Asian guys. Lots of patience and deep understanding 'n' stuff. The music was also quite nice but I did feel like the way a lot of it was put together (the editing I guess) was a little artificial. Not bad and probably way above Hollywood's average but still, not the style of a passionate director or group of filmmakers. Just the usual kinds of shots put together the usual kind of way. I was probably just more conscious of this because I wasn't concentrating so much on the dialogue (which most movies rely far too heavily on if you ask me).
The fighting parts did seem pretty awesome overall but that doesn't make a whole movie. A few memorable shots. Drama parts also good but didn't know what was happening. Why an 8 then? I guess I'm not that impressed because I have these ideas of a totally new kind of film-making in the future. Much more intense and well-thought through than today's movies. Way better music. Much edgier and braver scripts. Ip Man just doesn't seem like a powerful, unique movie. It's just good in most areas. With some exciting fight scenes. The sets did stand out though.
I don't know what to say really. This is a good movie. Nothing bad about it for the most part. It just doesn't quite have a unique feel of it's own. But it does have Donnie Yen playing a pretty cool character. But that's kind of juvenile isn't it? For a "serious" movie?