Martial arts fans have had high hopes for Jackie Chan since his return from Hollywood to the world of Hong Kong Cinema – and the Benny Chan directed New Police Story was definitely a step in the right direction as far as a return to form for the one time reigning king of kung fu movies. Would his latest film, The Myth, in which he once again teamed up with Stanley Tong (who directed him in Supercop and Rumble In The Bronx), turn out to be dreck or continue the fine tradition of some of his past work? Well, as it turned out, it was a little bit of both.

The basic story is initially told in two parts, both of which intertwine more and more as the film plays out. The first part is set in modern times and it revolves around an archeologist named Jack who, along with his pal and co-worker William (Tony Leung Ka Fai) are employed to head out to a temple in Dasar to find out what it is about that area that allows some holy men to float. They get there and find out that it's a piece of a meteorite that gives them that ability, and William swipes a piece of it to bring back to their headquarters. Unfortunately for them, this causes the Indian people in the area to become quite irate and they chase them to the edge of a cliff. William makes it to the helicopter, but Jack is sent whirling off of a cliff into the river below. When he wakes up, he still has the sword that he grabbed in self defense back at the temple, but he finds himself at a martial arts training school lead by an elderly man and his beautiful niece (Mallika Sherawat). They test his skills with the sword and solidify his connection to the other part of the story…

…long ago a general named Meng-Yi (also played by Chan) was assigned with the task of guarding a gorgeous Korean concubine named Ok-soo (Hee-seon Kim) and getting her back the emperor in one piece. As they survive an attack on their caravan they get separated from the rest of their entourage and while alone, begin to have feelings for one another. Unfortunately for Meng-Yi and Ok-soo, their love is forbidden as they come from two different classes and shouldn't be intermingling.

The Myth starts out fairly strong, with some nice period costumes and a great opening battle scene in which Chan must save Ok-soo from their attackers that takes place on the edge of a cliff. As the story begins to develop and we find out just how Jack and Meng-Yi are related through Jack's story and the dreams that he has, things continue to remain interesting and the movie manages to blend some serious period drama with the kind of slapstick martial arts action that Chan is known for (with Leung Ka Fai making for a pretty solid sidekick in a few scenes).

The film also features an intense and insanely well thought out and choreographed battle scene that proves to be not only an amazing action set piece but also a pretty emotional moment in the film as well. The scene (along with a few of the other 'past' scenes), without spoiling it, allows Chan a chance to actually act and he does a very fine job of handling the more intense moments that the script delivers. Likewise, there's a present day scene that takes place in an Indian factory on a conveyor belt covered in rat trapping glue that ought to bring a smile to the collective face of fans of Jackie's older work – the moves and comedic timing are definitely still there.

Unfortunately, The Myth fails to live up to its potential for a few different reasons. First off, there's an abundance of bad CGI work in the film. This applies not only to some of the stunts but also to the blood spray and even background critters such as the scene where Chan sits playing a flute only to awaken a cobra that dances behind him – the cobra is completely computer generated and obviously so. The film also fails to tie up a huge lose end. When Jack awakes to the sight of the beautiful Indian girl and goes through all that he is required to go through to prove himself with her uncle, he promises her that he'll return. While this may do a nice job of setting up a sequel, the fact that once he leaves we never hear anything else about it again as the film goes in a completely different direction might leave some viewers scratching their heads wondering what the point of it all was. Then there's the floating. While Hong Kong cinema has a tradition of making it seem like certain characters can fly by way of some clever wire work (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon being the best known example to North American audiences at least) but here it's over used in the ending of the film to the point where it becomes tedious.

The storyline does tie everything up when it's all said and done, at least all the major plot points, but it isn't a satisfying conclusion to a film that did start off very strongly. The sum of certain parts of The Myth are definitely stronger than the whole, and that's a shame as this was a missed opportunity – it had potential, but it didn't live up t to it. The movie is entertaining enough, but because it fails on a few too many levels, it's really nothing more than that, no matter how ambitious the international location shooting and cast make it seem. The film looks very pretty, but without enough substance to make the pretty mean anything, it's ultimately rather vacant.

Video:

The 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer on this DVD is excellent. While there are faint traces of edge enhancement and mpeg compression evident in a few spots, they're few and far between. Colors look nice and natural, the reds especially are quite strong but they don't bleed, skin tones look great as well, and there's a very nice, high level of detail present in the background as well as the foreground. Print damage is non-existent and although there is a little bit of grain present in a few scenes, it's never out of hand and never unnatural looking. A very solid effort in the visuals department on this release.