I was keen to watch this after seeing the trailer and noting how many positive reviews this had. So I was very surprised to see just how bad this was.
Its billed as a dark comedy about martial arts however it simply isnt very funny. I had even saw a female reviewer on YouTube compare this Napoleon Dynamite. Simply how? It has nothing in common with Napoleon and the style of humour is very different and in this movie 99% of the jokes fall flat.
There is a serious issue with the tone of the movie in that it takes itself far too seriously for the humour to work. Dark humour is probably the most difficult to pull of correctly and this movie is a good example of why thats the case. There are more reviews online now of this movie and they are slowly pulling down its rating and they appear to cite the same issues and that its underwhelming. I would go so far as to say it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
While I was expecting something like The Foot Fist Way, this movie has nothing positive to say about martial arts. It basically portrays martial artists as psychopaths so anyone with a background in martial arts may feel insulted that this is how the disciplines are portrayed.
Also there are a number of extremely violent/gory scenes which come out of the blue and are another indication that the director simply has the tone of the movie wrong. If anything it overplays the effectiveness of karate, we now know exactly what professional MMA fighters can do to each other because of UFC and the sound effects and violence portrayed in this is actually more extreme based on supposedly part time karate students.
This brings me to the final point. Realism. You can only suspend your disbelief so far. At no point during the first 70 or 80 mins is this movie seen as a surrealist story. However when bodies start to pile up and theres no consequences then it can only be a surrealist story?
This is a poorly judged movie which is extremely negative about martial arts, gore and violence which doesn't fit with the tone, humour which simply doesn't work and cannot decide whether this is a crime movie or fantasy. The only positive reviews seem to come from critics who overly praise indie movies and who feel clever for watching crap the mainstream ignores. There are decent art house movies, but this isnt one of them.
Review of The Art of Self-Defense
