Premise: A teen is knocked out and wakes up in a Hong Kong kung fu fantasy world.
This movie is pretty much Last Action Hero, except instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger, it's Jackie Chan and Jet Li. I'm a fan of that idea. Two legends on screen together for the first time in a genre I'm rapidly falling in love with sounds awesome. As it turns out, the movie is just OK. When I hear that Chan and Li are in a movie together, I'm not expecting protagonist to be the kid from Sky High. That's missing the point by a lot. Chan and Li are fun though. I enjoyed their bickering, and this is the first time I remember seeing Li in something so light. It was refreshing.
I wish the action lived up to their reputations. I get that Chan was in his 50s at that point and Li was in his 40s. Director Robert Minkoff has a history of movies like The Lion King, the Stuart Littles, and that awful Haunted Mansion movie. He's making a family movie and has little experience with the kind of action set pieces Li and Chan are used to. This was never going to be a stunt bonanza. It is disappointing to watch a movie with those two and not think "how did they not get hurt?" a few more times.
Michael Angarano wasn't bad in this. He fits what the movie is looking for. He's just not what I signed up for. I was more pleasantly surprised to see a young Liu Yifei show up. She was bouncing around for a while before Mulan.
This is an entertaining enough movie. A bit of a disappointment, but much of that has to do with me ignoring the warning signs of what it was.
Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend
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