This movie kinda popped a bit out of nowhere for me as i never heard of it. I checked the trailer and it looked to have some cool fights and im always up for a a Martial Art movie.
The biggest issue with the movie is despite the stakes being high in a "situation point of view" (chemical weapons that could fall in the hands of terrorists), the movie never really seem to emphasis on it and kinda look "cheap" when it comes to the CIA and spy stuff.
That wouldn't really be an issue if the biggest emphasis was on the tournament, the martial arts, and there was emotional engagement. The problem is there is not much.
We are only presented 3 fighters, from France, China and our main character from USA. Add the Muay Thai champion from the compound and that only make it 4 fighters. Not much of a tournament if you ask me.
The movie does pop some fights here and there to pace the rhythm and altough none was bad per say, once again i never really felt the emotional engament or the main character being in true danger.
I understand this movie was probably filmed with a tiny budget on location and they couldn't really afford more expensive CIA stuff and such, but they should had really tweak the script better to really make us the viewers connect with the characters and give us more emotional fights and "badass" attitude from the main character.
Ultimately it "entertained me" enough to be on the positive side of the scale but its one i have no interest to rewatch or buy to add to my collection. I am giving it a 6 out of 10 and if you read this on Letterboxd, it barely get the yellow heart by the skin of its teeth.
