So there, my friend Andrew and I were, leaving the
local cinema, thinking silently to ourselves about the
movie we had just seen. We each push a different door
open, and exit the building. Being the big Jackie Chan fan
that he is, before viewing it, I assumed Andrew would love
The Medallion. When the screening that we had
attended was over, I was relatively sure that he enjoyed
it, even though I, myself, really didn’t think it was
anything special. Now standing on the pavement, right in
front of the theatre, waiting for my mom to pick us up, we
still had yet to engage in a conversation. All of a
sudden, I hear a voice blurt out: “I want to go to Hong
Kong and slap Jackie Chan silly.” Was it really coming
from the mouth of the same guy that I’ve known for two
years, who has always eagerly awaited all of the acclaimed
kung-fu star’s films and worshipped his every move? Yes,
indeed, it was. In starring in The Medallion,
Chan’s career has now sunk to the same low level it had
reached when he did the moderately worse Tuxedo.
This film does manage to always be fun, but the script is
crap; I could write a better movie. I can’t think of
anyone to credit for the average amount of success that
The Medallion does contain. I was definitely
entertained when watching it, but not engaged, and
certainly never felt exhilarated.
Before reviewing this movie, I
thought a lot about the interests of the average audience.
My mind focused on how a standard moviegoer feels about
each of the standard parts of a film (in layman’s terms:
the beginning, the middle, the climax, and the
resolution). Is their final impression of the given movie
based on just the climax and the resolution, which they
will most vividly and easily remember, or the entire film
as a whole? Coming to a conclusion was practically
impossible, because I do not consider myself the “average
moviegoer,” so I thought about my own feelings on the
subject. Personally, I believe that a shaky start doesn’t
affect the overall quality of a film, unless it’s
particularly awful or distasteful (like that of Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which I did like,
despite its flaws). Unfortunately, The Medallion
has one of the most painfully flat beginnings in cinematic
history. Even though the last forty-five minutes are
engrossing and fun, they’re not enough to save this dud. I
was able to enjoy it, but definitely wasn’t satisfied when
the credits began to roll; with a few exceptions, it’s not
even worth going to at five dollar matinee showing,
either. The Medallion should’ve been released
directly to video, and is worth a cheap rental or a
look when it’s playing on HBO.
Even though he’s pretty bad
here, I do think that it’s unfair that critics are blaming
Jackie Chan for using a stunt-man in this one. We can
never tell that he has a double doing the hefty work for
him in The Medallion (maybe because of the lack of
action scenes); it looks like he’s doing them himself, as
usual. If they hadn’t known that Chan wasn’t actually
doing his own stunt-work, critics wouldn’t be complaining.
Combining outside knowledge and your actual thoughts on a
film is wrong, in most cases.
I can see why many are
criticizing the use of CGI, though. The reason why most
kung-fu movies are so charming and likeable is because we
know that the fight scenes are actually real (even
though, this really, isn’t much of a kung-fu movie at
all). Chan and his stunt-double are already super-human,
and even though computers enhance their abilities,
audiences will never be as impressed with The Medallion,
as they would’ve been if all of the kung-fu had been real.
CGI is often a splendid tool, but its frequent use in this
flick is, in a sense, disgraceful. It’s doesn’t do justice
to the skill and talent required to master martial arts.
If you’ve got kids, The
Medallion makes an okay early bird showing, and an
even better rental. It’s a goofy and watchable little
popcorn-flick, but not in a million years, would I call it
‘good.’ Wait for the video, VHS and DVD are the ideal
formats for this type of movie.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews