A Legend
China | Chinese, English subtitles
2024 | 129 Minutes
Director: Stanley Tong
Cast: Jackie Chan, Gülnezer Bextiyar, Yixing Zhang,
Chen Li, Shawn Dou, Kim Hee-seon, Xiaoran Peng
When it comes to Asian cinema, at least to a North American audience, few names are more synonymous than Jackie Chan; a legend in his own right. For years, I have based wanting to see a film Chan was in based solely on the fact that Chan’s name was attached to it, and that hasn’t steered me wrong – until now.
Now an impressive forty-five years into his acting career, which doesn’t count his work as a stunt double and everything he did growing up, seventy-year-old Chan is still going strong and as active as ever. With that said though, whomever thought that A Legend would float using Chan’s name alone, should be ashamed.
See Also: Bookworm at Fantasia Fest 2024
Although, granted, you did fool me enough to get my ass in a seat in front of the screen for this film.
Fresh off a stint on the streets of Montreal, where he was filming his parts for an upcoming Karate Kid project, his new film, A Legend, hits the Fantasia film festival. Another legend, director Stanley Tong, who has worked with Chan on numerous projects throughout their lengthy careers, including Rumble In The Bronx, Supercop, First Strike and The Myth – some of the better known Chan films to have found footing in North America.
The professor’s (Jackie Chan) past life as soldier in ancient China is haunting him. Leading an expedition team, he investigates a glacial destination, looking for a connection to his past. It was time of big turmoil and chaos back then, when he fought alongside a young woman battling against dangerous armies. Sacrificing many in the process, they escape to a mysterious sacred place. As he leads his team in the present, his journey across the ice is filled with life-threatening obstacles and surprises. Will the past collide with the present in this undiscovered country?
The film relies heavily on CGI which is both good and bad. Mostly bad.
The story brings our main cast back in time, to a time of peril between the Han and the Hun, and to do so, Chan’s face is placed on somebody else’s body, which is pretty creepy and not in a good way. Chan has always been known for doing his own stunts and despite now being 70 years old, still does provide his own stunt work – but seeing him as a CGI or AI character feels so very wrong.
Some of the best moments of the film are the fights scenes which while beautifully choreographed, at times are also absolutely ludicrous too. While I can get behind it for the most part, especially the scenes where a horse adds to his masters martial arts combats with sly horse kicks and such, there are a lot of moments that make the film feel more like fantasy than anything historical.
The story moves at a break-neck pace, which leaves anglophones reading subtitles little time to enjoy the gorgeous cinematography (I can’t imagine how much of a challenge this must have been for the Francophones that were reading the English subtitles! Tabarnak!) – as well, the story is very factual, stated more than suggested, and that grows tiresome pretty quickly. Nothing is left to digest, because everything is told so matter of factly, and that is something that definitely distracts from the film.
This happened. Then this. Then this. Then this. Then this. Perhaps treating your audience as if they’re all simpletons isn’t such a great idea. Has the art of storytelling declined this much?
There’s sadly not a lot to like about this directionless film. And that pains me to say. I’ve loved Jackie Chan films for decades, and while the blame for A Legend doesn’t fall on him, but moreso on the films bland young co-stars, terrible plot and matter-of-fact direction that feels like it was written by some crap AI program like ChatGPT or some other such filth, it still stings to not enjoy a film with Chan in it.
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Of course, the glory days of Chan films are in the part. As much as I’m sure Chan wishes he was still making Supercop films, as do all of us, at seventy years old, there’s just no way he can do that. Consider too, that Chan has always done his own stunts and it wouldn’t be right to have the same level of expectations that we once did. However, having a CGI copy of Chan is just horrible. Hopefully this is the first and last time we ever are fed that sort of thing.
In short, cast Chan it roles that he, at his age, can still excel in, and focus on creating something worth watching. Because this isn’t that. This, sadly, is dribble.
