Mythological Treasures

I liked it. It really is a fan's movie. In the first five minutes you see pictures of Lau Kar Leung, Lo Lieh, Jimmy Wang Yu, Cheng Pei Pei (not sure if the poster was from COME DRINK WITH ME or GOLDEN SWALLOW), Gordon Liu and others flash past during the beginning credits. Movies mentioned (that I can remember), ENTER THE DRAGON, CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON, BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR (twice).

There's a training montage that I've heard people complain about,but please, how many Asian movies have I sat through with training sequences. Honestly, no new ground is broken here. If you're a martial arts fan you've seen it all before and probably better. I saw the fate of one of the characters from a mile away, having sat through sufficient Shaw flicks. If you've only seen CTHD or HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, then it's a bigger treat. No one embarrasses themselves. I know it sounds kinda like I'm dissing it, but I'm not. It's a competent and comfortable (if you've watched a good chunk of HK martial arts movies) movie. It's certainly the best HK martial arts movie not made in HK and not directed by a Asian (BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA is more of a wu xia, I think) I've seen.

The look of the movie is fairly comtemporary, like CTHD, HFD, or FEARLESS except for a few scenes that could have come from the Shaw Bros sound stages or ZU (either one).

The Jackie/Jet fight was cool, though I have to echo the wish that they would have done it even 10 years ago.

Oh, and maybe it's a kid movie, but it's not a kiddie movie. I was happy seeing it a full price, so it's at least worth a matinee ticket. It's certainly the best Hollywood movie, Jackie or Jet have been in, in umpteen years.