Scorpion

The film looked good in the trailers. It looked brutal and the fights looked realistic. I thought this was going to bring MMA into mainstream movies. I thought this was going to be the future of Mixed Martial Arts movies. What a let down, which was made worse by the fact that i watched it without subtitles (the film's in French, i think). This was billed as a Mixed Martial Arts movie, but it didn't have any proper fights. the fights did not necessarily have to be fancy, but they could've done some better choreography. Even Power Rangers had better fights than this. Martial Artists or MArtial Arts fans stay away from this movie.

Another IMDb member tipped me that this was worth seeing so I ordered the DVD.

Started great, and then wound down. Which is really really ironic since the whole point of MMA and martial arts is pacing. So what good is a film that exhausts itself off the top? To put the review in perspective, as weak as it is, it is still a much more entertaining product that the DTV stuff that is now coming out of the US MMA circuit, where the "big names" in the sport think it is really cool if they bypass the middle man (ie, Hollywood) and make the films themselves, starring themselves, written and directed by themselves. Yuck.

And it does not even come close to the quality of Warrior or Forbidden Kingdom, the two martial arts films I have seen in my lifetime.

The script can be a bit melodramatic at times but the acting is good and the fight scenes are good. If you like martial arts films and you are a fan of Clovis Cornilliac, Karole Rocher, Caroline Proust or Olivier Marchal then this film is worth watching.

My brother came home with this, because he knows what a big MMA fan i am, and the back of the cover says "Scorpion is the definitive mixed martial arts movie".

First off, the cover mentions nothing of the movie being french with subs, but anyway ...

I was hoping this was going to be a good movie, to strengthen the argument for MMA, helping it get even more exposure, how stupid was I ? The writers/directors were doing exactly the same as the gang leader/fight manager/whoever he was. They made this movie, hoping that the popularity MMA has at the moment, would make them rich.

Eye gouging, fish hooking, stomps to a downed opponent, the only part of this movie I would call MMA were the gloves !

Scorpion is certainly not a fighting movie, the combat scenes are not very impressive.

But the story is good (not great, but good!). It reminds me Danny the Dog (from Luc Besson with Jet Li). First of all, it's the story of a man who seems a bit strange because of his past. And he is getting better, appreciating life again...

The music is giving the right atmosphere. The director makes a good job, this is not boring (as often in french movie, and I can say that because I am french!).

So we spend a good time, you can watch it!