Mainly to see Jin Xi Shan
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
06/03/23
Full Review
sarah a
A bit fake and funny, but I very much enjoyed nonetheless. It's a film that flits between the ancient past and modern day and it's done well. There is lots of flying in this, typically Chinese style. Great Jackie Chan stunts.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
It's a great adventure, historical & archeological journey, just take it open mind as entertainment rather than scientific facts. You will enjoy it...
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/03/23
Full Review
Liam D
While Director Stanley Tong (Mr. Magoo, China Strike Force) and Jackie Chan (The Protector, City Hunter) is still a great combo but the movie is a standard adventure but the bloopers are still pretty good
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
06/30/21
Full Review
Audience Member
This movie features 2 genuine Classic Jackie Chan action sequences, a couple of interesting story ideas and 3-4 minutes of a genuinely touching tragic love story, but virtually everything else is absolutely awful. To start, the movie features a LOT of CGI, and ALL of it is early-mid 90's quality, with all of it sticking out for its low quality. It also features some of the worst cinematography I've ever seen, which is either the type of Tripod Setup you'd do in High School (the type where you set up the camera angle without anyone in the frame to show you what angles you need), or really awkward camera movements that look like one-takes -- Additionally, ALL of the Ancient China sequences have an odd distortion to the filming, as if they shot on ultra-widescreen and slimmed it down 1.85:1, and all of the actors look about 5-10% askew, like the Lens on the camera wasn't on right. The story attempts to juggle two time-periods in an oddball bit of dual-reality (which is where the interesting ideas come in) but it's so jarring when going between the two, transitioning back only once you've finally begun to get invested, and the Ancient China sequences feature not only really bad wire-work, but also a big Army vs Army battle where literally everyone stands and waves sticks at each other (as if they wanted to look like they're fighting in case their boss walked by). The movie introduces a main villain less than 30 minutes from the end, and literally his only introduction is: "Wait, I know this guy - he's bad." Jackie Chan is certainly a good actor at times, but for massive chunks of the movie it looks like he was given no direction at all (like "Okay, we're doing this close-up where you realize *this* - Okay ACTION!!"), him pulling the same concerned revelation expression for half the runtime. Oh, and the ending is AWFUL, not only in that it's unnecessarily frustrating (after a nearly incoherent action climax) but it doesn't tie up ANY loose ends, from Jackie Chan's left-behind 21st Century love interest to the Police being after him.
I love Jackie Chan films, and genuinely never understood why some do not -- Watching this, I felt like I was watching a Jackie Chan film through THEIR eyes, as ALL of the problems that infest Jackie's more middling films is present, with none of the charm or wit to allow us to overlook it. My wife asked me if this might actually be worse than The Medallion, and yes, it just might be!
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
01/23/23
Full Review
sam w
A cultural historical epic, but I'm not sure if it's mocking or promoting the culture. It's got classic silly Jackie Chan fight scenes full of slapstick and energetic acrobatic moves which keep it funny and entertaining, but it's also far too long. The modern day story's daft, the historical costumes look cheap and it gets really poor in the final act with weak CGI, a pantomime villain and awful romance scenes.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
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