A Legend

Watching any form of modern Jackie Chan film comes with its fair share of challenges but A Legend hits a new low for the ageing martial arts star, in this so-called legacy sequel to The Myth. Sure, the film is lavishly produced, with plenty of sweeping landscapes, and suitably epic set pieces, however, it commits the cardinal sin of being unmistakenly boring and a slog to sit through thanks to some abysmally erratic pacing. The film tries to cram in way too much for its runtime and feels like two distinctly different movies crowbarred together, it's rather sad since I know Stanley Tong has been capable of so much better. The elephant in the room is of course the horrific de-ageing job done to Jackie Chan during the scenes set during the Han Dynasty, it looks like someone just got a picture of his face and slapped it on the body of a younger actor, it can be genuinely disturbing at times. If you're expecting Jackie to throw a few moves, then you'll have to wait till the last act before he finally gets down to business. Although it sadly stands as a consolation prize and comes too little too late. I will say however, I did like Nathan Wang's musical score despite the very cheesy and stereotypical soundscape. There's a noticeable lack of adventure in A Legend, it falters with a largely self-serious tale of action fantasy and a central romance that feels more cringey than it does profound. I highly doubt Panda Plan is gonna be much better.

But good luck getting to it. Prior to the final 25 minutes, you get to watch a mostly awful film. Little of the first 96 minutes of the film take place in the present, maybe 12 minutes of it does. The modern day bits within the first 61 minutes are passable with good moments but not that interesting. The scenes in the past are mostly crap with some decent bits of choreography. Don't even get me started on how terrible the deaged Jackie looks that they use for the scenes in the past.

Bizarrely , the final 25 minutes of the film are excellent. Jackie gets a great finale fight that is extremely rewatchable and rewarding to a fan like myself. This great fight easily is better than any action scene in The Myth and better than most of Jackie's fight scenes in his films from 2005 to the present day. Also, Jackie's Archaeological team members are actually entertaining in this part of the movie. Don't lLet this fool you. Jackie splendidly gets the bulk majority of the finale fight to himself with only minor help from the group of young people. This in stark contrast to Kung Fu Yoga and Vanguard, where his teammates constantly get in the way of Jackie's action and engage in their own uninspired melees.

So, yeah ,the four stars which I give this film, three of which are for the final 25 minutes. I would love to get the film on Bluray just for the stuff at the end and one can't deny the beautiful, well shot locations throughout the film.

This was the most boring Jackie Chan movie I've ever seen. The script and acting were terrible - no research, no respect, and a completely distorted portrayal of history. It wasn't just a bad movie; it was an outright insult. A waste of time and money. It felt like a pathetic attempt made solely to disgrace the name of Mongolia. The depiction of the Xiongnu warriors in this film - exaggerated to elevate the filmmakers while degrading actual history - was absolutely revolting. Even a child with a basic understanding of history would find it appalling. Let me repeat: the movie was incredibly boring. The AI effects were clumsy, the character interactions were awkward, and the storytelling lacked any meaningful development. This wasn't a film - it was a complete insult and a distortion of history. I'm deeply disappointed that Jackie Chan took part in such a disgraceful project. It's not just disappointing - it's downright heartbreaking. My trust is broken 1000%.

I was Grew up in Jackie chan era, A lot of movie from Jackie chan I saw it.

But his one is the worst storyline, the worst movie of Jackie chan for all time.

The storyline was boring, the past and the present didnt connect to much.

Less action, to much unnecessary talk, watching this movie just like a group of your friend doing a Theaterical class..

I saw a lot of people sleeping in cinema watching this movie, and they left the cinema silently.. Its mean the movie was confusing for viewers.. Worst movie of Jackie chan for all time.. Really really upset watching this movie.. Its not Jackie..

Set during the Han dynasty era, general Zhao Zhan (Jackie Chan) and his friend Huajun (Lay Zhang) save Princess Mengyun (Gülnezer Bextiyar) from a ruthless Prince Hu Duna (Aarif Rahman). Zhao Zhan and Huajun fall in love with Princess Mengyun. In the present world, archeologist Professor Fang (Jackie Chan) starts dreaming about Han dynasty era, particularly his past self and soon his student Wang Jing too starts to have the same dream. With these lives interconnected across eras, it is upto Fang to find the proper closure to all these characters spread across two different timelines.

Stanley Tong has tried to milk the sequel factor to The Myth but sadly, A Legend simply doesn't have anything going in it's favor. The Myth had it's entertaining moments, merging two different timelines in a better way. This is exactly where A Legend fails as there is no sync between Han dynasty era and modern times segment nor does the love story from the flashback work. Worse, the flashback takes majority of the screen time with a de-aged Jackie Chan and it only ends up dragging the story. The usual Jackie Chan fun elements are nearly non-existant till the climax fight which by then is way too late. The screenplay is dated and tries hard to recreate the same template of The Myth. In that attempt, the film fails to entertain and the decision to fill in majority of the film with the flashback was a blunder.