| This is an enjoyable movie with a familiar storyline; watch it a couple of times and you'll recognize it. A young man searching for himself is transported through time and dimension to a different world where he meets 3 friends. They travel together to a mystical castle while fending off a witch's attacks and face the powerful Jade Warlord. In the end, the young man goes home (a better person, of course), and finds some of the people from his adventures are living in his own world.
The movie is well done, though it appears that it was really made for the "big screen", and loses a lot of its marvelousness when viewed on a TV screen. Jackie Chan and Jet Li are great to watch together, not just in their fight scenes, but in the camaraderie of their acting scenes. Thank goodness these two gentlemen had the foresight to learn acting! In fact, they are better than some of the other actors in the movie. The special effects are great, as well as the makeup work on Jet Li and Jackie Chan, who play dual roles in the movie.
No, it's not a typical "martial arts" movie (some of which seem to have been written by and for seventh and eighth graders and subject their casts and viewers to the ordeal of their acting attempts), but it's a wonderful story for those of us who know that the Universe is filled with the unseen and the unknown.
By the way, the "extras" included on the US SE 2-Disc Set are worth watching at least once, especially the background on the filming locations and "how it was done". Also interesting is hearing the writer speak about how the story came to be written. |
