I had heard really bad things about the Jackie Chan vehicle A Legend before viewing it. To be honest, I didn’t find it half as bad as many were saying. Perhaps it’s the Chan apologist in me. After all, I am one of the rare people that seemed to enjoy Panda Plan (2024). Don’t get me wrong, A Legend isn’t exactly what I would call a great film. I’m not sure I would even call it good, but there is still some of that old Chan magic that managed to put a smile on my face, which for me made it at least worthwhile.
Reteaming with director Stanley Tong, A Legend finds him and Chan revisiting their previous hit The Myth (2005), with this covering similar ground as that film, albeit less successfully. Like The Myth, the plot of A Legend mixes modern day segments with flashbacks to the ancient Han Dynasty, with Chan appearing in both. In the modern day setting he is professor Fang, with him “playing” Han Dynasty General Zhao Zhan.
I say “playing” in quotations, as it is clearly not Chan in the role, rather it is a much younger stand-in/stuntman with a de-aged Chan’s face slapped on them. Like his and Tong’s previous collaboration Vanguard (2020), Chan doesn’t have a great amount of screen time when you take into consideration how much of the film focuses on Zhao Zhan.
To be honest, this element of the film didn’t bother me as much as it has others. Even a die hard Chan fan as myself knows that he doesn’t move as he once did. Having him portray a character half his age is simply unfeasible. I think of the likes of Robert De Niro in The Irishman (2019) where the CGI artists no doubt spent a fortune in making him look younger, seemingly forgetting that he still moved like a man in his mid 70’s. While the de-aged face of Chan isn’t wholly convincing, at least the character moves like a younger man.
It is quite an inexplicable decision Tong has made to utilize this de-aging technology for an entire film. Whilst it works well in short bursts, the technology still isn’t good enough for an entire film. Even the best in Hollywood haven’t been able to pull this off so I don’t know what Tong was thinking when his film was made for a fraction of the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster.
Chan plays famous archaeologist Professor Fang who while investigating the history of a newly discovered ancient artifact unwittingly establishes a mystical connection with heroic Han Dynasty General Zhao Zhan (also Chan, well kind off). To find out how they are connected, Fang and his team must delve deep into the past, with what they discover having deadly repercussions in the present.
Watching A Legend, it is clear that this is neither Chan or Tong’s finest hour. In fact, next to Vanguard it is probably their weakest pairing. While I was never expecting it to reach the extreme highs of Police Story 3: Supercop (1992) or Rumble in the Bronx (1995), I had at least hoped it would come close to their lesser efforts i.e. Kung Fu Yoga (2017). Whilst that may not have been anything close to a classic, Jackie Chan was front and center, with there being several set pieces built around his trademark comedy fight scenes. Unfortunately A Legend doesn’t follow suit, with the majority of the action being of the swordplay variety. Only the finale features anything resembling classic Chan style action, but it’s a long time coming.
Other than the finale, the action scenes all take place in the past, with Lay Zhang and Chan’s CGI assisted double being the main focus of the film’s various set pieces. This isn’t to say that the action is poor. With a career as lengthy as Tong’s, he more than knows how to put together an exciting action scene. The poor CGI can be something of a distraction, but Tong’s action choreography manages to shine through, with him even incorporating some horse based fighting into his set pieces as he did with The Myth.
If only the rest of the film could match the action. Unlike The Myth, the plot of this film is less than gripping. In The Myth, both the past and present sections of the storyline combined to make an entertaining whole. The same isn’t true with A Legend, with the separate timelines never truly coming together in a cohesive way. The constant jumps between the timelines makes it difficult to care about what is unfolding, with the Han Dynasty set section of the film feeling somewhat rushed even though it takes up most of the film’s runtime.
In a Chan film, a poor plot is usually covered up by his comedy antics and the quality action. That doesn’t happen this time round. Sure, there are attempts at comedy but these mostly fall flat, although the cast do try their best within their limited roles. Far too much time is given to Chan’s co-stars and their hijinks rather than to Chan himself. When the focus is on Chan (the real one, not the A.I assisted version), the film unsurprisingly comes alive. While this pleased me as a fan, it ultimately made me wonder what A Legend could have been.
Of the supporting cast, Lay Zhang probably fares the best, with him being a likeable presence as well as getting a fair share of the film’s best action. The romance between him and Peng Xiaoran’s Xin Ran feels unnecessary and shoehorned in, adding screentime to an already overlong film.
Aarif Rahman doesn’t really get much to do until the films third act, with him finally squaring off against Chan. Up until then some mystery is built around his character but if you can’t tell he is the villain upon his introduction you really need to be watching more movies. Rahman was better served in his last collaboration with Chan and Tong in Kung Fu Yoga, with him playing the sidekick role that is essentially filled here by Lay Zhang.
At least the visuals are nice. Disregarding the sometimes shoddy CGI, the beautiful cinematography of Lee Chi-Wah gives the film an epic look, with him perfectly capturing the vast landscapes that are used as a backdrop to the action. While I said earlier that this was probably made on a fraction of the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster, it is still an expensive looking production, with many of the battle scenes being on a large scale.
I would suggest that anyone deciding on A Legend should lower expectations. With there already being several poor reviews online I already knew this wouldn’t be an action classic. As I initially wrote, there were still touches of the old Chan magic that managed to entertain even if the film could have done with more of them. At this point in his career, I would doubt his fans are expecting a new Chan film to be on par with classics like Police Story (1985) or Armour of God (1986), although sometimes I’m not so sure based on some comments I see online.
For a true quality Chan production, it looks like we will have to wait till next year for Karate Kid Legends. Chan may not be the main focus of the upcoming film, but judging by the production still and the recent trailer, it looks to be a quality production worthy of his talents.
Until then, A Legend should have just enough entertainment value to keep Chan fans entertained, with it coming to Blu Ray, DVD and Digital on January 21, 2025 from the good people at Well Go USA.
Plot: 2/5
Acting: 3/5
Action: 3/5
Overall: 2.6/5
