I do, however, have two complaints about the film. The first is the film style. Rarely, if ever, do I complain about the framing of shots but this one has such blaring problems with it that it was super distracting. It felt like a widescreen film but was meant for a 4:3 ratio viewing. Half of the actors faces were always out of shot. It could just come down to a bad director of photography so I won't 100% err towards the director.
The other was that the action scenes were shot in a way where there were so many cutaway shots that it could easily have been one martial arts move, and a cut. Then another martial arts move, and a cut. There was no flow to the fight scenes. Where Ip Man did a great job was the continual barrage of attack and defense but The Grandmaster felt like I could have stepped in and been a lead in this movie (with the right direction). There was no flow to the fights so it felt very disjointed.
That being said, I did enjoy some more depth to the story of Ip Man. It makes me want to read more about him between this and the Ip Man films. He had a pretty fascinating life and his legacy has prevailed. There were story arcs in this film that weren't in the others.
Another thing, which I also liked about the Ip Man films, is that they showed several different styles of fighting versus Wing Chun. Although the scenes were brief, it was still cool to see this range of styles.
Overall it wasn't a horrible movie, by any means, but I much prefer the Ip Man film series. I'll recommend this one but only as a supplement to the other films. (They are not in the same category when it comes to directors / action).
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