Run of the mill action flick. The fact the guy is basically Rambo is lampshaded twice in the trailer itself, who knows how many more times they'll do it in the full movie. Fans of Michael Jai White take note, others can take it or leave it.
But the fun bit that caught my eye is how the [bunch of shadowy assassing] seeking revenge tracked down the [long retired master in hiding] by the fighting style.
And that got me thinking. This is a staple of old kung-fu movies but I've never seen it in American works (or I don't remember seeing it).
The old master or a careless disciple performs a signature move and someone in the crowd recognizes it as the last remnant of the Snake style or whatever. In a western work the old badass is tricked/provoked/cornered into action and he busts out a can of generic whoop-ass, giving himself away not through any specific style but through sheer badassery.
Chinese and Japanese philosophy sets great store by style or school or lineage first, and in action movies fights are (usually) a matter of style VS style and the mastery thereof, than anything else, and only when the styles are evenly matched do the stat bonuses such as strength and stamina and endurance and power of friendship come into play.
Western philosophy does not consider fights a discussion between two opposing schools of thought so it's usually general skill VS general skill, with the occasional modifier of brawn.
There are plenty of examples of the opposite, of course, and I would love to hear them, but this is the general trend.
I just find it interesting.
