8 August 2017. Directed and written by males, this female version of the typical martial arts movie has some nice scenes, but remains a bit too black and white, typical for many male derived movies. The good guys (females) and bad guys (males) are depicted in their literally white and black clothing and along with their white and black persona. Yet by the end of the movie, the explanation of the emotional dichotomy employed along with it being the twist in the movie while helping to support the black and white depiction, comes too late to help soften the "typical" feeling of the movie.
Much of the martial arts action is quite fascinating, especially with its diversity. It's odd though how the level of lethality of the means used in subsequent rounds isn't consistently more intense. Some of the action scenes are given too short of movie time, others are truly captivating. More time could have been given to some of the other martial art contestants, mainly because of how a number of the opening scene sequences revealed suggested such characters would play a little greater role later in the movie then that did.
Some nice touches come from eventually the more layered character depiction of the black antagonistic contestant as well as more of the Karate Kid (1984) playfulness as well as its use of some of that movie's themes but in a more mature and coming of age, grown up fashion. If the movie had been directed and written by females, the movie might have been much, much better, but the males who did undertake this project did a decent job of it.
Much of the martial arts action is quite fascinating, especially with its diversity. It's odd though how the level of lethality of the means used in subsequent rounds isn't consistently more intense. Some of the action scenes are given too short of movie time, others are truly captivating. More time could have been given to some of the other martial art contestants, mainly because of how a number of the opening scene sequences revealed suggested such characters would play a little greater role later in the movie then that did.
Some nice touches come from eventually the more layered character depiction of the black antagonistic contestant as well as more of the Karate Kid (1984) playfulness as well as its use of some of that movie's themes but in a more mature and coming of age, grown up fashion. If the movie had been directed and written by females, the movie might have been much, much better, but the males who did undertake this project did a decent job of it.