It was intriguing to see that much maligned Keanu Reeves had decided that it would be a martial arts movie that would kick off his directing career, while hopefully rebooting his own flagging image. Maybe after The Matrix Trilogy he felt it was a pretty easy genre to master?
The resulting Man of Tai Chi is actually a competent example of the genre, but it seems far easier to blend in than to stand out. Essentially this means don’t expect to see anything new…
Reeves wears nice suits as he runs a rich guy ‘to the death’ underground fighting ring somewhere in China, bringing in all that sweet sweet pay per view money. The only problem is, they don’t build mindless killers like they used to, so a change of tack is proposed.
Despite the cool name, Tiger Chan is a tai chi martial artist. He uses his skills to instill personal calm, and redirects the negative energy of his opponents against them. The funny thing is, that apart from some tricky whooshy hands movements, Tiger pretty much looks like he is doing normal martial arts to me.
Of course Tiger is a lover not a fighter – even though he is actively fighting prior to his call up – but he needs the money. They all do.
The rest plays out like it has since someone had the good sense to point a camera at a martial artist. A series of ever increasing challenges line up to take their punishment, before Tiger even gets to utter the immortal line “I am not fighting you”, seemingly unaware that the fight is already well underway.
With a world and a plot all too familiar to genre devotees, all that remains is to compare Man of Tai Chi to its peers. Danny the Dog and Gladiator did it better, Jean Claude van Damme did it better (and worse). The fights all take place in well lit spacious areas, and Reeves sensibly avoids herky-jerky editing, but falls for the trap of relying on too much wire work. It’s cool to see characters pull of moves few could manage, less so when they do things no one could do.
Tiger himself doesn’t help matters. Finding one’s centre is lovely and all, but walking around all full of oneness in a story so clichéd makes it impossible to maintain an audience’s attention, and Tiger lacks the charisma or magnetic pull of Bruce Lee or even Jet Li.
Keanu Reeves took his Hollywood profile and money and indulged himself by proving he can make his film. The end result has some moments, but ultimately proves that Keanu can do what far less experienced guys with a whole lot less money have been managing for decades. Hard to heap praise on that.
Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. If director Keanu Reeves stands in the way of Keanu Reeves being John Wick, I for one will be quite upset.
