Tracing the steps of Ip Man I wanted to see what other Yen movies look like. 14 blades while benefits from the budget feels superficial all the way. The large eyed damsel in distress, slit eyed sinister bad-ass girl...After all sometimes it boils down to expectations. Made me wanna flip a coin on Samurai Shodown.

Donnie Yen provides consistent entertainment but not much in the way of dramatic depth or story. 14 Blades is what you would expect from him but entertaining if you like modern wuxia "pulp" schlock. This film also features some truly over the top gimmick weaponry which is a nice nod to Master of the Flying Guillotine, Blade (1995), and other such films. The choreography is decent but relied a lot on outdated year 2000ish CGI flashy effects. Daniel Lee is still a novice compared to Tsui Hark.

Donnie Yen and the gorgeous Zhao Wei star in this wire-fu swordplay flick which is essentially about a bunch of dudes in the desert all trying to get a hold of the stolen Imperial seal. Plenty of excellent fighting scenes, both hand-to-hand and with an assortment of weapons, and an interesting story with some political intrigue. Some of the weapons are a little gimmicky, and there's a couple of cheap looking CGI shots, but the action in this is awesome.