Definitely one of the most anticipated films of the year. You know, like how the main lead looks forward to Chinese kungfu. While it ain’t exactly a bad show, I guess the humongous expectations on this took too much out of it. What do you expect when Jet & Jackie appears on the same screen together? However, there is but only one truly impressive sequence in the show, the square-off between the 2 masters themselves. The disappointment was that it occurred so early on in the film that it diminished any impact of anticipation.

Now moving on to the characters themselves. Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano). Why does the main lead have this name? Do not ask me my friend. He seems nothing like the revered monk to share his name. But do not ask me. If there is but 1 resemblance, he doesn’t know how to fight at all (at least initially), which brings me to a point of contention in the show I don’t quite agree with. Do you really think learning martial arts is so easy, that Jason can become a semi-pro in just weeks or months? While the opposition soldiers and lowly grunts are well… grunts, they are probably heavenly soldiers who have trained for years or decades. But no, Jason can fight them effortlessly at the end. If watching loads of Chinese kungfu show helps, I must have been on the path to greatness if I had a master now.

Next! Lu Yan (Jackie Chan). Well, I liked how he introduced himself to Jason. The drunken immortal himself is at times a scholar, at times a poet, but often a beggar I guess. Anyway, this “immortal” relies greatly on liquor to maintain his immortality, so well… its some kind of a semi-weakness. By the way, his name should be some kind of a mistake, or perhaps an effort not to confuse the bulk of audiences who do not know Chinese. It should have been Lü Yan, the given name of one of the deity in the classical [Eight Immortals], Lü Dong Bin. Jackie is also casted as the owner of this pawn shop (which also actually sell videos), known to Jason as Old Hop. For some reason, Jason fail to draw a connection between the name of this shop to someone he met later on (or earlier on, depending on how you view time vortex). Interestingly, Old Hop seems to think Crouching Tiger, Spanking Monkey is fabulous. What a pun, but not so amusing to me.

Next! We have the Silent Monk (Jet Li). The only thing being that he is the not-so-silent silent monk. The only time he really kept quiet was during the impressive fight scene against Lu Yan. At other times, he may have appeared to be quite mischievous (like when he decided to urinate on Lu Yan), which is well… reasonable when you watch till the end! But on the same note, what happened to his hair? In addition, Jet Li as Monkey King looks rather unnatural. He just doesn’t have the aura or style to portray such a bubbly character I guess. Please let him stick to the silent, cold, deep-thinking protagonist.

Next! We have Golden Sparrow (Liu Yifei). She looks good, and frankly, is one of the reason that prompted me to watch. Something bugging me is the way she refers to herself as a third person, perhaps due to a traumatic childhood when she loses all sense of self. Another thing bugging me is… why the hell does she have something of a jade hairpin that can somewhat kill the antagonist when other things can’t. Why is the hairpin so powerful that the Divine Cudgel isn’t?

Next! We have the White-Haired Demoness Bride, Ni Chang (Li Bing Bing). She actually looks very good in this show. Fits her to a dot, so endearing to me. But oh, lets not forget she is on the opposition side, so I shall not get carried away. Being a not so major character, she played her role well with maximum usage of screen time. Kudos.

Finally, we have the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou), the guy you will grow to hate, the guy you wonder how he will die… blah blah blah. He has some pretty impressive skills, but then again, is cheating coz of his superior chi, which he uses quite alot.

Overall, a pretty decent film if not for the massive reputation of the cast. It has its cool fighting sequences, comedic moments, but ultimately, is a story about growing up and maturing (albeit too fast given the duration of a movie).