Takes itself way too seriously

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

If you want to see a movie with intense, hard-hitting fight scenes, then "Born To Defend" has what you're looking for. It's interesting to see a young Jet Li acting well and incorporating a kick-boxing style into his fighting, and the main villain is a worthy opponent for him. However, there are two major problems with this film: 1) It's poorly lit, 2) It's poorly plotted. Problem #1 may of course be just the fault of my version, a DVD in Chinese with (generally awful) English subtitles. The lighting is at times so bad that it's hard to see what's going on - and that includes the climactic moments of the film! Problem #2, however, will appear in ANY version. The whole plot of the film is: Jet Li and friends are harassed by stereotypically scummy Americans, until Jet decides to harass them back. It's literally no more complicated than that. But if you can just concentrate on the fighting, then I suppose the film is worth a watch, especially for Jet Li fans. (**)

I am extremely disappointed in this movie being a huge Jet Li fan. The anti-Americanism was atrocious in this picture. The dialog used for the Americans was something out of a really bad 80's after-school special.My favorite line just may be "You can't do this to me, I'm in the US Navyyyyyyy!" as Jet Li burns the evil American Sailor. Horrible movie. I have to say next to all of his American movies (except Lethal Weapon 4), this is definitely one of his worse ones. If you are going to rent any Jet Li movies, rent "Black Mask". "Fists of Legend", "Twin Warriors", and "The Legend of the Red Dragon" are excellent Jet Li movies as well.

Jet Li's own and uncredited adaptation of popular HK Manhua/Novel "Zhonghua Yingxiong" by Ma Yingcheng (1983), later brought to us as "A Man Called Hero" with more charismatic Ekin Cheng as leading actor. The original story had great success both in China and Hong Kong, but the little one Jet Li gained with this film -he stopped directing and moved to San Francisco- shows how much it follows the "chinese pride" stuff contained on it. Even disappointing as a simple Jet Li action movie, it proves fighting can't save the party. Jet Li stars as -wow!- Jet, a Chinese soldier back to Tsing Dao after winning against Japanese devils (sic). Our "hero" finds Tsing Dao kind of invaded by American troops, so he inevitably begins kicking some bad guys who are, of course, American. It follows some boxing fighting that would make you laugh thinking what's the story supposed to be about. Stay away if you are looking for more Hua Ying-Xiong. There's none here.

Born To Defence, directed by and starring Jet Li before he got really famous, is a low-budget and shoddily acted but nonetheless serious movie. It takes place at the end of World War II, with the defeat of the Japanese. Jet Li and his buddies were soldiers in the war, fighting bitterly for China against Japan. As they return, they find the Americans made out to be the only war heroes, and present in such force that the situation is akin to occupation. The U.S. soldiers behave very insensitively, and Jet soon becomes entangled with them. After they destroy his best friend's rickshaw, which was his livelihood, he attacks them but is thrown in jail. He seethes with anger and escapes from his cell, only to find that the American soldiers have abducted his girlfriend (the best friend's daughter). Her father pursues them, but ends up being thrown off a roof. The girl is so distressed that she jumps off, too. In the old factory nearby, Jet makes his final stand against the soldiers (esp. their captain, who is a big strong fighter, and also a relatively honorable man, which fact is however lost in translation, as Jet can't understand English).Compared to the bad action movies that prospered in the rental video market in the '80ies, Jet Li's Born To Defence is not bad. It is indeed dominated by terrible acting (though mostly by the Americans), and contains plenty of senselessly brutal violence. But it is saved by a serious and intense story about the tragedies that can come from inter-cultural lack of understanding.6 out of 10.