Wu Dang (2012)

Simply put, the reviewers on this site wouldn't know a good martial arts film if it kicked them in the rear. Pun very much intended. When it comes to kung fu flicks, they all seem to fall short in one category or another. Whether it be the fights themselves, a convoluted and hard to follow storyline, ridiculous dialog, characters you can't connect with, or other things. They always seem to fall short in some regard, if not many. This film doesn't suffer from that. The fights are nothing short of amazing. The dialog is up to par and at times very interesting and/or heartwarming. The storyline was never confusing or convoluted, and it was always apparent what the goal was. And the characters each had their own strong points and were fun & unique creations. If you go into any kung fu film and expect to see 100% perfection; then you are not a fan of kung fu films. Even IP Man suffered from ridiculous dialog and a convoluted, at times, boring storyline. This is easily in the top five kung fu films I've ever seen. Probably #1 as far as well rounded kung fu films go.10/10 stars, must watch. Ignore the haters.

The trailer looks good, but the movie is below average. It feels like a slapstick of action, romance, and adventure that make you think about the strange film production than being engage in the movie.The action is average at best. Too many slow-mo and the camera-work is not very exciting. The dancing kung fu sequences are far from an artful work in some other movies. For a long time, I thought this is a Taiwanese-production or a Chinese-production action film. However, for a HK movie, I expect a lot better action.The story-line is the biggest flaw and very questionable. It made very little sense -- no background story about the treasures, or characters; I'm not sure if the main lead is a doctor or an appraiser or just super martial artist; the con-schemes are not clever at all. As for the characters, they dress nice and look pretty, but not likable. The monk-in-training(Shui Heyi) has no character, the daughter(Ning) is more like an overactive high school teenager (as oppose to a teen in that era), the romance between the leads just come up with very little in-between, and I don't even know why they try to patch some vague love interest between the Shui and Ning.If at least the story is decent, I would say watch it. IMHO, try something else.

Most of the scripts played are not consistent. Most of the scenes are not consistent and not related to the future story line. The feeling is like...they putting ice cream, fried noodles, pudding, sandwich into a bowl of rice. The only common thing is you are using chopsticks to eat them. The most unbelievable thing is, this movie is not a story teller. You have no idea why those people need to do this or do that during the movie. Never explain until it is happened. You will have a lot of "Huh!? WHY? What they are doing??"... You are watching a movie like, there are a man walking walking, go to temple with his daughter, hit some people, use a woman, stole something(you don't know what are those and why they do that for!!!), run away, leave his daughter, daughter sick and gonna die, suddenly come back and no one in the temple notice, bad guys come up and say "it is my plan~! hahaha"...., take the treasures, bad guys become very strong like a semi-god, kick that woman, suddenly that man become stronger than the semi-god...(then why need those treasures!?), win the battle, daughter died and come alive with using the treasure, that woman die too because that kick, oh wow, that woman come alive again. DKLM

The problems of most Chinese martial arts movies are always avoidably many: 1) the time frame or the historical background is always stupidly ridiculous; 2) the scenario, the plot and the storyline are nothing but nonsense; the 3) the costumes, the hairdos, the way of talking are always weird; 4) the actors, male or female, are always looked too modern; 5) the dialog is always stupid and awkward, making the actors become even worse when delivering the stupid dialog. With these fatal shortcomings pointed out as aforementioned, this movie is no exception. Guy met his wife in a Chinese Restaurant? Yeah, right. "Supermarket" in 1912? The mysterious female Kung-fu fighter wearing what? Her hair style? The tablet hung on the facade looked like just out of from a wooden artifact production line. Guy with his daughter came from America almost killed mother duck on the mountain trail, yet a Chinese guy knew to protect the duck? Once the father and his daughter arrived at Wu Dang Mountain, the screenplay and the storyline just turned into absurd and stupid status, it damaged viewers intelligence and common sense.