Professor Fang (Chan) leads an archaeological expedition in which he uncovers a mysterious piece of ancient jade which links to a princess in the Han dynasty. After doing this, Fang finds his dreams filled with memories of a past life in which he was a brave general who fell in love with the princess. The story unwinds in both the past and present as Fang tries to understand his flashbacks while fighting to keep the uncovered treasures from nefarious hands.
‘A Legend’ is a sequel to ‘Kung Fu Yoga’ which was a sequel to one of the last decent Jackie Chan films, ‘The Myth’. That said, the three films are almost entirely independent from each other, meaning that you can still watch ‘The Myth’ without fretting about having to associate the following two sequels with it. And that is a good thing because while I disliked ‘Kung Fu Yoga’ quite a lot, ‘A Legend’ is somehow worse. It gives me no pleasure writing that and even less pleasure having experienced it.
The first thing that will become apparent to viewers is the anti-ageing technology used on Jackie Chan as his past self. The technology is being used more and more today and perhaps Chinese cinema wanted to flex its muscles and show it could outdo its Western competition. And perhaps it might have worked if the technology was used sparingly; Hollywood might have many faults but they have mostly understood that you cannot fill half a film with the trickery without it being jarring. In ‘A Legend’, a good 50% of the film is the de-aged Jackie Chan, so any deficiencies in the computer effects are amplified. It becomes very distracting and completely unnecessary – why a younger actor could not have taken on the role is beyond me.
The slight advantage that the past life scenes have is the addition of a few good though never exceptional battle scenes. The contemporary scenes, however, are dull and uninteresting, padded out with infantile action that seems a million miles away from what you might expect from Jackie Chan. And if you think this is an anomaly, watch ‘The Panda Plan’ (which I will review separately once my constitution is revived) or, in fact, quite a few other recent Jackie Chan films. Naturally, it will be pointed out that Chan is 70 and the years of punishment that his body has taken have caught up with him. But there is no attempt to adapt the action choreography to take this into account; why can Sammo Hung still excel in recent efforts while his old friend is stuck trying to re-create fight scenes from ‘Armour of God’?
‘A Legend’ was a sequel nobody asked for, a follow-up to the woeful ‘Kung Fu Yoga’ which I only now realise was intended as a sequel to ‘The Myth’. Money was spent to make it look ‘modern’ and a sufficiently powerful retort to Hollywood blockbusters, but it’s no such thing. It’s a thoroughly dispiriting affair that is every bit as soul-less as its competition and with even less awareness of its limitations. Having now watched ‘A Legend’ and ‘The Panda Plan’, it saddens me to officially title 2024 as Jackie Chan’s cinematic annus horribilis.
Well Go USA are bringing ‘A Legend’ to US Blu-ray, DVD and Digital on January 21, 2025. You can pre-order it now from Amazon.com.
- A Legend - January 4, 2025
- Tai Chi Chun - December 22, 2024
- Rashomon - December 11, 2024
