A teenage kung fu fan magically (and against his will) gets to go on his own kung fu adventure. This could have been a lot worse. The kid is surprisingly tolerable (it helps that he takes a lot of abuse), there are some pretty good fights, and the story, a Karate Kid-Star Wars mash-up, kept me fairly interested, if not invested.
This is the first film to feature martial arts movie stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li together. I should point out that I've never seen any of the latter's films, and the only thing I've seen Chan in is Around The World In 80 Days. But I imagine their fans must be pretty disappointed this is their first joint venture. For one thing, the kid is the main character, and the movie is geared at his age group, so not much edge is allowed. Also, though the fights were choreographed by a master (Woo-ping Yuen, who's worked on the Kill Bill and Matrix films), they were filmed by a man who usually directs kiddie fare. The result is that you'll feel like you're watching a good fight, whereas in the hands of a director like Quentin Tarantino, you forget you're watching a movie. Not to mention illogical moments that have the bad guys hover, waiting for the hero to dispatch an opponent before moving in. The movie as a whole needed a higher dose of internal logic to make the audience give a crap about what happened on screen. For example, the kid becomes a skilled martial artist in the space of a couple of weeks. Also, a teenage girl character serves rather obviously as nothing more than a plot appendage to balance out the largely male and adult cast.
So, not horrible, but kind of a waste of time.
This is the first film to feature martial arts movie stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li together. I should point out that I've never seen any of the latter's films, and the only thing I've seen Chan in is Around The World In 80 Days. But I imagine their fans must be pretty disappointed this is their first joint venture. For one thing, the kid is the main character, and the movie is geared at his age group, so not much edge is allowed. Also, though the fights were choreographed by a master (Woo-ping Yuen, who's worked on the Kill Bill and Matrix films), they were filmed by a man who usually directs kiddie fare. The result is that you'll feel like you're watching a good fight, whereas in the hands of a director like Quentin Tarantino, you forget you're watching a movie. Not to mention illogical moments that have the bad guys hover, waiting for the hero to dispatch an opponent before moving in. The movie as a whole needed a higher dose of internal logic to make the audience give a crap about what happened on screen. For example, the kid becomes a skilled martial artist in the space of a couple of weeks. Also, a teenage girl character serves rather obviously as nothing more than a plot appendage to balance out the largely male and adult cast.
So, not horrible, but kind of a waste of time.