Vanguard

Jackie Chan has made many action movies - some were great, classics from their time - this is not one of those, but it's not horrible either.

If you've ever watch any of Jackie Chan's really old movies and enjoyed those well enough, then this one is no different.

Yes, there's some bad acting and questionable CGI, and of course it's going to toe the party line as it's a Chinese movie.

But if you can get past that and you have nothing else to do, it's an OK movie.

The film is sold as "a" Jackie Chan movie, with his name first, but he only has a supporting role, now he must have young actors do the spectacular stunts. The film is both ridiculous and spectacular. Jackie Chan is now a bloated old man who relies on young actors for the action sequences, but it works, because the style of the fights is indeed Jackie Chan's, mixing humor, use of props and destruction of the scenery, for the intimate sequences, and big chases and stunts with a lot of technology and vehicles for the outdoor sequences (with CGI porn support). As usual, we travel a lot (London, Africa, Middle East).

The ridiculous side is the emphasis on the Chinese and their philosophy, posing as a teacher. The ridiculous aspect is also due to a pile of clichés, do-gooders and postcard shots.

The humor during the fights and action sequences always works well and is welcome. The action sequences are interspersed with a plot that we don't care about. But also interludes filled with good feelings and mawkishness (cf. The clichés and postcards mentioned) The CGI porn is limited: many shots look like cartoons and point out the lack of budget of the film (it is true that to visualize it on a smartphone or a tablet, this is enough).

Good idea of franchise though, which can be declined indefinitely. "Vanguard" is a private security company that defends "important" people, that is to say rich. A whole program, just like the political mediocrity of the film.

Let's start with the positives. The fight scenes are pretty awesome, always clear with some cool moves.

The negatives. Where to start. Any action other than the fight scenes ranges from mediocre to bad. The CGI is awful yet used repeatedly, even on things that you don't expect them to CG. The story is nothing. The characters are nothing.

Most hilarious is that for some reason, even 40 some years later, jackie chan movies are terribly dubbed. And i don't mean dubbing with a different language. I mean voices speaking the same language as the character, yet never sounding like they're coming from them. I counted four different times when i saw how a character looks and then laughed out loud when they spoke.

By the end of the movie i cared about nothing. And the non-fight scene action became so monotonous and redundant. I was asking myself "why am i still watching this?" and i almost forgot about the hilariously blatant chinese propaganda (1 viewing, 6/9/2021)

I can't say "Vanguard" is boring, because like someone waving a toy in front of a baby's face, its color and movement make it distracting. As well as expensive (though why so many of the CGI effects are so bad given what this movie must have cost, I have no idea). But it is senseless and ridiculous, even by the most lightweight fantasy-action-movie standards. It really feels like they said "OK, we have about a dozen ideas here for generic ripoffs of other movies...hey, let's cram them all into ONE movie, and stick Jackie Chan on top!" From one scene to the next, this film has no idea what it wants to be--so it tries everything, badly. I laughed out loud at some things that were meant to be taken seriously.

I'm not sure bloodthirsty terrorists need to be heavily featured in a movie geared towards 10-year-olds, but that seems the approximate age group targeted here. Yet at the same time "Vanguard" isn't exactly a family film--or anything else, for more than a few minutes at a time. What it is, is a mess. A loud, expensive, busy mess that does Jackie no favors, or any of the younger cast members either.

Please note that if you click on their names, every single "user" here who gave "Vanguard" ten stars has mysteriously never reviewed another film, and only been on IMBD for a month. This movie flopped even in China, but Chinese bots sure are working overtime to try to push it here.

Bad acting, bad action scenes, bad CGI, bad story... I could keep going on. There is so much wrong in this movie that I wish I haven't seen this. What's worse is that Jackie Chan is selling his soul to the China movie factory. It really hurts his amazing legacy. So many awesome HK movies and even some decent Hollywood movies. When judging a movie I rather want to keep politics aside but its very hilarious when all those new China movies try to sell how great China is. Like when they tell a story about an activist and portrait western people as wildlife hunters but don't say anything about a lot of Chinese people buying that stuff for "health" issues. 3 stars only because there is worse. China is so desperate to show the "pretty" Chinese people in their movies that acting becomes 2nd importance.