Movie Review: The Myth

The Myth

Released:  2005

Rated:  R

Genre:  Action, Adventure, Comedy

Length:  117 minutes, 1 hr 57 mins

Recommendation:  Not really, but if you enjoy Jackie Chan fight scenes, you can try it out.

Synopsis:
Martial arts legend Jackie Chan stars as Jack, a world-renowned archaeologist who has begun having mysterious dreams of a past life as a warrior in ancient China.  When a fellow scientist asks for Jack's help in locating the mausoleum of China's first emperor, the past collides violently with the present as Jack discovers his amazing visions are based in fact.  Assisted by the spirit of a noble princess, Jack follows a mystical trail that soon finds him battling the forces of the legendary emperor, as well as the henchmen of a modern-day tomb raider, as he seeks to uncover history's greatest secret - and his own destiny.

My Thoughts and Summary:
Jack is an archaeologist, who's recently started having dreams of a life as an ancient warrior in China, Meng Yi, and a beautiful concubine to the Emperor, Ok-soo.  Jack's friend has come calling to ask Jack's expertise help and knowledge in finding a mausoleum, which then brings the dreams and present mission together for Jack.

Let me tell you why I got this movie first.  We are Jackie Chan fans.  We love the action fight scenes he creates.  They are fun and full of quick unique movements.  Jackie always tries for new scenes too.  I laugh and enjoy the dynamics of the fights.  This movie had the scenes there, with Jackie and his friend then with a female character named Samantha.  Wonderful fights.  And this is why I think the movie is rated R, with fighting and blood of the ancient warrior and his battles.

I didn't do my research on the movie in depth enough before hand thought.  The movie starts with subtext to Chinese speaking.  We have a hard time with this as we don't see the actions or face expressions of the characters to read the movie more.  As the movie went, about half way, it did convert to English with some scenes in Chinese and subtext.

The idea is of a Myth involved of an ancient warrior who protected the Emperor and his new concubine.  The Emperor became deathly ill, and there was a pill he could take to make him immortal.  As you can probably guess, the current mission is funded by a man looking to be immortal.

My husband was a little confused in the beginning of the movie.  With trying to read the screen and keep up, he was confused by the jumping of Jack's dreams and Jack's current life.  I figured it out, as I've read and seen movies with this concept more than he has.

I liked the movie for Jackie's stunts and action.  I always love those scenes.  The myth part was interesting too, and more so when they came to that hidden away city of the Emperor.  But I did feel the movie was a little slow and confusing in the beginning, and had slow parts throughout.

In the end, I was like, "That's it?  Really.  That's how they are going to end it?"  I was bummed a little bit.  I didn't feel I got the explanation as to why.  As for the family... The kid left about ten minutes into the movie because of the text on screen.  The husband was asleep about a half hour or forty-five minutes before the end.

It was a nice try, but seemed to fizzle out for us.