 |
|
Sean Hilgeman Not all is well in Ancient China as conflict rages between the Monkey King and the Jade Warlord. In a final duel between the two immortals, the Jade Warlord tricks his rival into giving up his magical golden staff and traps him in a stone statue. But as is the case with these things, the Monkey King succeeds in hiding his staff from the clutches of the Warlord, complete with a prophecy that a ‘seeker’ would find the staff and use it to free him. And of course it ends up in an antique shop in Boston, Mass. for Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) to find and be transported back through time and space to fulfill said prophecy. I want to start out by saying that this movie did have a promising premise. Chinese mythology has a wealth of stories untapped in the West, including characters like the Monkey King, and I went in with an open mind full of hope. Unfortunately it was not to be the case; serves me right for being an optimist. About the only positive aspect to this movie were the fight scenes, especially between Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Though obviously exaggerated through wire-fu and CGI, it’s easy to tell these two are master fighters and their skills show through here. There was also chemistry between them outside of fighting, and some of the best jokes came from their antics. The rest of the movie, in so many words, sucked. The story was paper-thin with enough plot holes to hide all the stilted acting. The dialogue was sloppy and characters were shamelessly stereotypical; the only difference between Jade Warlord and Snidely Whiplash was the latter twirled his mustache and cackled madly more often. I gave up counting the number of clichés midway through the movie. Not even the awesomeness of Jet Li and Jackie Chan could save this movie from itself. Even if you just want to see the fight scenes, wait for this movie to come out on television. Questions? Comments? Contact Sean Hilgeman at hilgeman@msu.edu
|
|
|