I know that a lot of people think that the Beijing forms are somehow 'sabotaged' to be less martial. Whilst it is true that the martial usage was de-emphasised after the cultural revolution, the actual postures were unchanged. I have studied with two disciples of Li Tianje (who choreographed the 24 form based on his family style.) Both were very much traditional martial artists concerned with usage. Below is a blog post where I compare Yang Chen Fu's postures to Li Yulin's. The 24 forms were based on Li Yulin's postures, which is why the 24 forms looks different to the orthodox Yang style. Neither is more or less martial, however. I have also included a video demonstration.

http://www.risingcrane.co.uk/?p=783