The Myth

It's worth seeing the movie just even for the rat glue factory scene. It's a wonderful Jackie Chan physical comedy combined with a really nice striptease from the super hot Indian actress. Sure to become a classic scene.

The rest of the movie constitutes of a historical "Hero" like war martial art action with some modern Jackie Chan slapstick. The plot is very tenuous and was probably written after someone wanted a story with Chinese history combined with a modern drive towards the nascent Chinese scientific and technological resurgence.

Jackie Chan plays an Indiana Jones like archaeologist which spirals into a Lara Croft style adventure of finding very strange but mindbogglingly powerful things. Meanwhile a very hazy parallel story runs of a concubine who falls for a general played by Jackie Chan a few hundreds years in the past. There is anti-gravity devices and immortality pills thrown in as well.

Though it does get really cheesy and maudlin at times, it's a really fun movie to watch.

Ever since Jackie Chan's rendezvous with Hollywood in Cannonball Run (1981) (which incidentally was advertised in Hong Kong as Jackie "co-starring with Bert Reynolds"), he has been true to his unique brand of action – part comedy, part choreography, part acrobat – but never true martial arts such as what Jet Li delivers. (A remote analogy of the Sphinx – part woman, part beast, part god - but nothing of a man in it). And this went on for what seem like an eternity, both in local and Hollywood productions. Then, approaching mid-life, Chan started to try new things – e.g. pure romance in "Bo lei jun" (or "Glass bottle") (1999) and pathos in "New Police story" (2004).

In "The Myth", he takes things even further, by giving us both an old clowning around Jackie Chan and a new all serious Jackie Chan, in two parallel stories, present and ancient. Good intentions and efforts notwithstanding, Chan's portrayal of a general of woeful countenance in the ancient Qin dynasty is just not convincing, maybe because of things as a simple as his stature or that his face is too familiar. As a result, the love story on which obvious emphasis has been placed never quite gets off the ground. What we are left with then is pretty much the old Jackie Chan flick. Still, with the multi billion dollar (HK$) budget, an international cast and some pretty clever ideas (as the "rat glue factory scene" everybody mentioned), this movie IS entertaining. As well, although the "historical" portion is not exactly a resounding success, it does add another dimension to the movie.

One final note – at half-century point, Jackie Chan finally yields a bit on his resistance to wire work and CGI. While we are all proud of his steadfast determination to do all the dangerous stunts himself, the laws of nature dictate that there are things that you just can't go on doing forever.

What do you expect when you see a movie like this? Something huge with thousands of extras and perfect computer effects? Check. Archaeology action like Indiana Jones? Check. Tragical love story with beautiful lady? Check. Speedy stunts, fights and fun like in the good old Jackie Chan flicks? Check. Judging by the sum of its parts, this ought to be the greatest movie of the 21st century. In reality, it's not quite so. 2 tremendously entertaining hours, yes, but not a perfect movie.

What are the reasons? I'd like to name three. First, I always see Jackie Chan with a helmet, desperately trying to keep a straight face, when I am supposed to see the general. He just isn't that type of guy. The dreams or historical flashbacks are therefore less convincing than the scenes from the present day. Second, the whole anti-gravity stone thing has much too much Spielberg in it. The myth could have remained a myth, in other words: the audience doesn't always want a scientific explanation why things happen, especially if it's as unlikely as this one. Third, I think what neither worked well in this movie is the villain. From the moment he appears and does the usual "I'll steal the big Blah to rule the world" villain routine, the rest becomes predictable. If the screenplay had dared to move along a different path, it would have evoked less of the "seen it before" feeling. I enjoyed it, but regrettably it's not without the little flaws mentioned.

Saw the movie today. Nice authenticity with the arms, armor and tactics of the Qin Dynasty (comtemprary of Republican Rome)and attention to detail. And a very beautiful Korean princess who looked every inch the role. Overall entertaining movie with signature JC fight scenes in the modern parts of the story. This new Indiana Jones type role for JC is certainly refreshing. The cop role is getting stale. The ending is also new for a JC movie, and perhaps indicates a certain coming of age - no more everyone happy, bad guys in jail, good guys get rewarded template anymore. The use of multiple languages by native speakers corresponding to authentic locations is refreshing (Mandarin, Korean, Cantonese, English, Hindi)- no more stilted "other" languages.

Well, it almost feels like two separate movies. I liked the half of the movie that takes place in modern times, that has some vintage Jackie Chan moment, like the fight in the glue factory or the tomb raiding fight in India, these scenes alone bring us back to a younger Jackie Chan era like Projetc A and Mr. Canton and Lady Rose. But the other half of the film, the epic historical stuff, is very, very cheesy, even the fights, which a loaded with CG for this half of the film, don't spark any positive reaction, and Jackie trying to play a serious, melodramatic role doesn't quite cut the mustard either. However, Tong uses brilliant cinematography for the old era China part of the film and I must compliment the film for some of its use of music. Overall, the story doesn't hold up as being remotely plosible. But thanks to some great comedy and other funny moments (that I don't think were meant to be funny) the film is still enjoyable. It's not Jackie's best, but it is better than most things he's put out in recent years, with the exception of New Police Story--which I think is his best in a long time.