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.

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..

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.

Beautiful shots and cinematography on amazing nature locations. The actors especially the female protagonist is awesomely beautiful. I warched this movie on the new CMGO Celestial movie app at high resolution on a 4K Smart TV. You don't need to buy very expensive Blu Ray disc to watch this movie with today's early 2025 technologies according to some other commentators here. Streaming apps quality is at par with Blue Ray these days. So, the experience is exceptionally captivating. The intro soundtrack of the predecessor, The Myth, Endless Love, brought back fond memories. The storyline is mediocre. I gave more stars for the beautiful landscapes.

Like said in review title it doesn't come anywhere close to the quality of the production or the story of Myth. But if you can sit through the middle portion, you can enjoy the start and the end.

Viewers should note though that this movie is primarily targeted towards the Chinese audience. And likely as another project to promote protection of cultural heritage among the youth through attractive media.

Story was the weakest link.

Main problem with the story was that their was no proper connection between the modern world story and historical story. Which meant there would not be any consequences from actions in modern story or historical story that had an impact on the other.

You would notice the opposite in the myth, where we are invested in both narratives of the story.

It was bad given what they could have done with the material available based on the historical scenario used for the basis of the historical part of the story.

The music was OK. Nothing memorable beside the myth OST.

Easter eggs from the myth and Kung Fu Yoga were great. But wish they ended this with a proper conclusion to the myth storyline. Maybe something like those 2 characters walking away togather or something like that.

Finally, felt like there wasn't enough effort put into convincing the audience that the general from past is Jackie from current time. That also had a detrimental effect on the story.

To conclude if you enjoyed the myth and Kung Fu Yoga, you can watch this movie and be happy with it. Not joyful or sentimental, but happy and nostalgic.