The Myth Mr. Black's Grade: C- Starring Jackie Chan .
Jackie takes on two roles, a modern day archaeologist and a Qin Dynasty warrior over two millenniums ago. So, with The Myth you have two movies in one, a modern tale and one thousands of years ago. Neither one really works. You end up with two minor love stories, two plot lines that will eventually intersect, but don't make much sense.
Anyone expecting this to be Jackie Chan's House of Flying Daggers can forget about that. Look, I am normally pretty forgiving towards Jackie Chan's films in terms of plot, so let's look at the action scenes! The film opens 2000 or so years ago with a small, over the top battle on horses. Pretty silly really, one of those scenes where the two leads take a break in the action to stare longingly into each others eyes with the music blaring in the back ground. There is a fair bit of sword work is this, and it is certainly the bloodiest Jackie Chan film I have seen.
It may sound silly, but personally I prefer Chan's films to be grounded in reality. When he ends up with some type of super powers, like in the god awful The Tuxedo, you just lose me. I do not like to see Jackie fight 100 people at once, or fly through the air. He is at his best when he uses his surroundings to get the better of his enemies, rather than using 'wire work' and bad CGI to get the job done. There is one classic scene in a glue factory that really got at the crowd clapping, vintage Chan.
But one great action scene and a one very beautiful actress do not make a great movie, even with Jackie Chan.
Jackie takes on two roles, a modern day archaeologist and a Qin Dynasty warrior over two millenniums ago. So, with The Myth you have two movies in one, a modern tale and one thousands of years ago. Neither one really works. You end up with two minor love stories, two plot lines that will eventually intersect, but don't make much sense.
Anyone expecting this to be Jackie Chan's House of Flying Daggers can forget about that. Look, I am normally pretty forgiving towards Jackie Chan's films in terms of plot, so let's look at the action scenes! The film opens 2000 or so years ago with a small, over the top battle on horses. Pretty silly really, one of those scenes where the two leads take a break in the action to stare longingly into each others eyes with the music blaring in the back ground. There is a fair bit of sword work is this, and it is certainly the bloodiest Jackie Chan film I have seen.
It may sound silly, but personally I prefer Chan's films to be grounded in reality. When he ends up with some type of super powers, like in the god awful The Tuxedo, you just lose me. I do not like to see Jackie fight 100 people at once, or fly through the air. He is at his best when he uses his surroundings to get the better of his enemies, rather than using 'wire work' and bad CGI to get the job done. There is one classic scene in a glue factory that really got at the crowd clapping, vintage Chan.
But one great action scene and a one very beautiful actress do not make a great movie, even with Jackie Chan.