A Legend 传说 (2024) Review: Jackie Chan and Stanley Tong’s Latest Collaboration is a Colossal Misfire

How A Legend, the so-called sequel to 2005’s The Myth gets greenlit in the first place is beyond me. The movie reportedly cost a whopping 360 million RMB and so far since its original release in China in July, it only managed to scrap nearly 80 million RMB at the time of writing. A Legend was supposed to make it to the prime slot during the Lunar New Year schedule.

But after watching the movie, I can imagine it’s going to get cannibalised by its competitors which include Jia Ling’s YOLO, Zhang Yimou’s Article 20 and Han Han’s Pegasus 2 if it sticks to the Lunar New Year release date. Not that it’s doing any better after moving further to July, thanks to the poor word-of-mouth.

One of which, of course, involves Stanley Tong’s baffling decision to use deepfake AI technology to de-age 70-year-old Jackie Chan to make him look over forty years younger. It might work if it’s just a minor test footage or short reels on Facebook and Instagram but utilising the AI for the bulk of a full-length feature is an ill-advised move.

From the moment the “young” and wrinkle-free Jackie, playing the role of Zhao Zhan appears in the opening scene alongside Lay Zhang’s Hua Jun saving a runaway princess in red (Gulnezer Bextiyar) from the clutches of the Xiongnu troops led by the ruthless prince, Hu Duna (Aarif Rahman), he just looks weird. The uncanny valley vibe, complete with the plastic-looking facial expression makes it harder to watch, let alone convince (us) that (we) are looking at the young Jackie Chan.

Tong, who also wrote the screenplay, incorporates the same storytelling structure seen in The Myth. First, it takes place in the past during the Han Dynasty era (the first movie took place during the Qin Dynasty). Unlike the previous movie revolves around Jackie Chan’s General Meng Yi falls for the Korean princess, Ok-Soo played by Kim Hee-Sun, A Legend sees Zhao Zhan and Hua Jun, both Han Dynasty generals in love with Princess Mengyun. As it turns out, the past is somehow connected to the present as we meet archaeologist Professor Fang (Jackie Chan) and his student, Wang Jing (Lay Zhang) have been dreaming the same thing. The dream has to do with the discovery of artefacts that lead them to find out the truth alongside a young assistant, Xin Ran (Peng Xiaoran).

The biggest problem with the present-day scenario looks as if these characters spend their leisure time wondering, debating and yes, having recurring dreams about the historical past back and forth. There’s a noticeable lack of adventure, unlike the one seen in The Myth with Jackie’s archaeologist character is disappointingly passive for most parts of the movie.

Those who are expecting him to strut his stuff will have to wait until the climactic third act, where he squares off against Aarif Rahman’s He Boer and his men in a glacier temple. Despite hitting 70 years of age, Jackie still has some moves left in him. The fight scene is crisply edited with Tong alongside Yuen Tak and He Jun serving as action choreographers. But frankly, it feels like a consolation prize thrown in, reminding you are still watching a Jackie Chan movie, albeit with significantly fewer acrobatic fights and stunts. We do get the “young” Jackie during the past sequence battling the enemies with a sword and even using the horse for some fancy stuntwork. But unless you can get past the artificial look of his youthful appearance, it’s difficult to get invested in whatever physical struggle or sacrifice playing a romantic hero.

Tong’s whole past-and-present storytelling, trying to cram everything from the love triangle to the historical war epic and modern-day adventure story with a dash of action-comedy tropes are all perfunctorily put together. The pace is erratic, making the 129-minute length feel like a slog to sit through. Sure, credit should be given to Tong and his crew for mounting a lavishly-produced movie, particularly Lee Chi-Wah’s majestic cinematography captured the scenic backdrops and its vast landscape. Not to mention the movie reportedly used over 10,000 horses for the battlefield sequence, giving it an epic quality.

And yet, for some of the efforts to justify the movie’s hefty investment, A Legend falters with Tong’s largely self-serious tale of action fantasy and a central romance that feels more cringey than profound. The “so-called sequel to 2005’s The Myth” that I mentioned earlier in the first paragraph? It’s barely a direct connection other than the first movie’s familiar theme song and the brief appearance of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Kim Hee-Soon. The last Jackie Chan and Stanley Tong collaboration resulted in an action-movie abomination of Vanguard four years ago and now, they continue to sink further to the bottom with A Legend — a mammoth failure that should have been buried deep in the glacier temple.