Born to Defence was make back when Jet Li's career was
going downhill and not-yet a superstar, but surprisingly it is a fun and
relaxing movie ride. Marking the movie as Jet Li's first and only directorial
movie, it is hard to think why Jet has not direct again, as the movie
beautifully shot at times and the fight scenes was interesting. But on one hand
it is Jet Li and his directorial move that actually save the movie from being
rubbish. The plot is borderline thin, but does has a pretty interesting message
and throughout the film you could feel Jet Li's anger with the government at
that time. His acting in this film is also quite good and a par above everyone
else in the movie. To the fight scenes, this is Jet without wire and his usual
wushu for most of the time, as the main fights were American Boxing! This mark a
much more different action from Jet's other movies and is not badly filmed
either. One major downside is the lack of tension in the final fight scene
between Jet Li and Kurt Roland Petersson which
could well have been great, but the lighting was terrible and at times unable to
see the moves which is rather frustrating. Overall Born to Defence is a movie
that has bad acting (except for Jet Li), lacking a potential romance, however,
Jet Li does well in both departments -acting and directing - and in turn
redeeming the movie and telling Jet Li to direct again.
63.5%
=
18.25