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Friday, June 11, 2010

[6.75/10] Ip Man 2 (2010)


Ip Man 2 (2010)

The long anticipated "Ip Man" sequel contained top-notch action sequences from the beginning to the end, yet unfortunately, it turned out it wasn't on the level of the original movie. The plot is generic, as expected - we get to follow Ip Man as he establishes and propagates Wing Chun in Hong Kong after escaping Communist persecution in 1949. Well, plot's not the main problem here, because "Ip Man 2" mostly suffers from poor script and undeveloped characters. Although we have action fight scenes, in the end the movie itself is like a collage rather than one full beautiful artwork. Fight scenes, while more in quantity and still enjoyable, are tainted by the obvious wire-fu on certain scene. And although it looks pretty amazing, it's also very inappropriate, because it just doesn't quite fit the era. The acting from the lead acotrs is passable. Both Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung deliver prime performance for their roles, although chemistry between their characters is lacking. Another big disappointment is the blatant stereotype and one-dimensional characterization of the British colonists and the Twister character. So, to sum up, "Ip Man 2" is nothing special! It's just another modern Chinese martial art movie, that is entertaining and enjoyable, but doesn't come close to the original in term of overall quality.

  • My Rating: 6.75/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes: N/A
  • IMDb: 7.8/10

2 comments:

Jaccstev said...

Though that boxing thing messed up the movie a bit but there is still plenty of top-drawer wing chun and hung kuen action to keep martial arts lovers (like me) satisfied. I gave this an overall score: 8/10 (The sequel that almost fulfills all of the expectations and just destined to be another classic martial arts film like its predecessor.)

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

I gave the first film an 8 out of 10. It was great, but definitely not amazing or something groundbreaking. I much more prefer period martial arts films like "Hero", "CTHD", "Fong Sai Yuk", "House of Flying Daggers", "Duel to the Death", "Iron Monkey" ..etc. Those MA flicks set in early 20th century aren't exactly my cup of tea.
In this "Ip Man" sequel the plot was no-existent and the characters mostly one-dimensional. I wish it was much better, but it just wasn't. Glad you liked it though :)