tendobear Utter crap. Probably one of the worst kung fu movies I've ever seen. It wouldn't be so bad if the story sucked but the fights were awesome or something, but it wasn't even that. The story sucked and the fights sucked! Usually kung fu movies tend to have low budgets and don't have good stories anyways, so they rely on the fight scenes being exceptional in every way. That's why the fight scenes in kung fu movies tend to have super fun fights that try to out-do the previous movies in scope, length, and ridiculousness; and usually they achieve all that without wire-fu or CGI, that's what makes kung fu movies so much fun. But Tai Chi Zero has none of that. I don't know what Stephen Fung was doing, but he CGI'd the crap out of the movie. I do admit that he has an interesting visual flair, but it's really nothing special, and in all honesty, all the CGI hocus pocus is just a diversion to distract you from noticing just how bad this movie is.

O Zayev Its my first review so you'll forgive me in case anything wrong... But as a long time fan of martial arts and kung fu cinema, and as a tai chi practitioner i couldn't just watch and forget. This movie along with its sequel fails in all directions. Even the touch of Sammo Hung didn't save it. Action scenes were corrupted with cgi and ridiculous wire-work. Attempted comedy failed big time. I admit i did enjoy the sequel but not until after the stupid kung fu vs canons and fire-guns. TC0 was so boring i didn't even wonder what would come first, i just hoped that it ended soon. I cant believe someone actually spared money for this kinda production. One thing is clear - it is not a kung fu movie, and if its a comedy its a bad one. Sure there were high budget explosions but i couldn't make it up for all other failures. If you plan on watching this move i advise you to pass. And only watch the sequel. You wont be missing anything and you can thank me later for sparing you 2 hours that you would've lost on this. 3/10

Yichieh Chen Honestly, in the beginning I didn't think highly of this movie because of its seemingly funny horn born with Yang Luchen and the war scene the director presented. They made me laugh and wonder if it was a comedy or heroic film @@ Then there arrived the surprises!Combining the elements of video games, comics, I suddenly came to and keep my eyes open afterwards.Kept in suspense as how the story lines would go, I stayed focused and curiosity aroused.Eager to know what would happen next, then the film suddenly ended.Though some plots are not clear and coherent enough, the movie as a whole is innovative.Hence I would recommend it to those who wanna something new or know more about kung-fu!

dont_b_so_BBC First off, I would recommend Tai Chi 0-- if only I can decide whether to recommend watching in the theaters or waiting to watch it back-to-back with its sequel on DVD... Cos most of my issues with Tai Chi 0 has to do with how it tries (& fails?) to "stand alone" as an inconclusive (inconsequential?) prequel. I mean, how would you feel if you found out that the hilariously "over-sold" trailer (in English, Mandarin and various Chinese dialects) circulating for Tai Chi 0 is actually a trailer for-- and contains footage from-- both this movie and its sequel?It is also easy to see why Tai Chi 0 elicits such a wide variety of opinions-- it has something old and something new, and they are not so much "meshed together" as "layered on"... The old stuff is everything you would expect from an old-school kung-fu flick, and the new stuff is the latest fads in video-game aesthetics-- so depending on which way you lean, you might find as much "forced humor" (if you expected kung-fu drama) as "forced melodrama" (if you expected video-game hi-jinks). Nowhere as wacky and creative as Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer nor as elegant and nostalgic as Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, director Stephen Fung's Tai Chi is more of a new take on the "kung-fu film as comic-book fantasy" genre in the vein of the "Storm Riders/Warriors" franchise.And as someone who enjoys an old-school kung-fu flick as much as the latest video games, Tai Chi 0 literally pulled me around in different directions. On the one hand, I liked that the corny 1970's convention of kung-fu actors shouting out their styles/moves now comes with animated sur-titles and graphics; on other hand, the graphical "overlay" somewhat distracts from the sheer joy of watching Sammo Hung's seasoned fight choreography being pulled off by actors who's gone through martial arts training. So for my tastes, the core story and conflicts are presented too fluffily while the visual gimmicks are sprinkled on too liberally.Perhaps this is due to Tai Chi 0 being a prequel that sets up a main story and conflict which will only be seen in later movies-- despite a lengthy introduction of the protagonist's story arc early on, Tai Chi 0 is really about how the old master Chen and his daughter deal with the forced relocation of their village. And fortunately, veteran actor Tony Leung easily carried off the central drama of film as the old master Chen, while the newcomers simply played up their kung-fu movie stereotypes (feisty girl, dorky guy, etc). Tai Chi 0 starts hitting its stride in its 2nd half-- when this historically relevant but made-up narrative (the original Chen village, now a small town, is still around) comes to the fore-- and doesn't let up until old master Chen finally unleashes his kung-fu.I mean, for all of Tai Chi 0's "light touch", there's no disguising the fact that this is an old-school "blood-and-gluts" kung-fu story in a historical-fantasy setting-- with 3 on-screen deaths of named characters in the first 15 minutes and another in the later half of the movie-- and had it gotten much better writing and directing, I'm sure I wouldn't have missed any of post-production stylistics one bit. Cos the final and best fight in the movie for me involved nothing more than getting Tony Leung into 2 months of Tai Chi boot camp, some good old-fashioned wire-work, and a big wind machine. But in contrast, one of my favorite bits was the protagonist running around the village like a first person RPG video gamer searching for a quest reward... See what I mean about this movie tearing me apart?If I sound like I'm quibbling, I am.... Tai Chi 0 is quite enjoyable, if not really memorable, and does a good enough job setting up the sequel. But as a kung-fu film, it is just nowhere as coherent or satisfying as the classics-- cos where Stephen Chow or Ang Lee would take great care to introduce audiences to the "reality" of their kung-fu fantasies and set things up for dramatic/comic effect, Stephen Fung crams the protagonist's entire back-story into the first 15 minutes of the movie before dropping him into a side role-- and then randomly (cleverly?) adds glowing eyes, X-ray film perspectives and even a First-Person Sequence?!So in the end, pardon me for submitting this review but reserving my vote until I get to see the sequel...