Brief Story Line
While passing through a remote location, Jackie (Jackie Chan - Unexpected Family, Kung Fu Yoga etc) and his beloved panda friend Huhu somehow got themselves into a hidden place in the mountains inhabited by strange local tribe led by its Chieftain (Ma Li - The Dumpling Queen, Unbeatable You TV series etc). Huhu was mistakenly recognized as divine creature like the tribe's prophecy that she would be able to prevent major catastrophe by going to the mountain top together with a messenger. Jackie who was thought to be the messenger obviously did not want to do the task and tried to get out of the village with Huhu.
Unfortunately Chieftain's son Tulu (Yu Yang - The Last Frenzy, Green Water and Green Hills With a Smile TV series etc) who was trying to gain her mother's favor since she trusted his younger sister Shayi (Wang Ying Lu - I Am Nobody TV series, The Wig etc) more, asked Qiang Shan (Qiao Shan - Love Is Hard, To Be With You TV series etc) to ensure Jackie failed.
So what would happen to Jackie and Huhu? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
When my wife and I saw the trailer to this movie, we were both quite surprised as it was sequel to one of our least favorite Jackie Chan's film Panda Plan and we never thought they would make another one. But since we never missed any of Chan's recent movies, we still went ahead and watch it. And turned out it was exactly what we expected. There was really nothing special as the story was not interesting, the comedy was mostly flat and the action was not many. At least Huhu was still adorable and the climax scene was not bad with some inspiring scenes.
For 100 minutes we were shown Jackie going into a fantasy world, interacting with unaffectionate tribe's people and trying his best to save Huhu while avoiding the responsibility as prophesized by them. I probably would have been angry and disappointed watching this if I had expected something great, but since I was already aware what we were getting into, I did not have any complaints of the movie's quality. In any case, it was never meant to be a deep meaningful film, just something created to give people a good time while celebrating Chinese New Year. Yes, this was indeed released in China during the festive period together with five other movies (one of them we have seen last week). In term of Box Office performance, it was not as great as the rest of them.
The humor in this movie was definitely not for everyone. Even my wife and I who are usually OK with slapstick humor sometimes did not find them funny here. Of course we could still find the hilarity several time, but not in all of the jokes. Which was why she was confused with another audience who laughed every time. We did feel that the character Tulu and his friend Qiang Shan's absurd change of personality was still fun to see. The action was not bad with few scenes showing Jackie Chan's trademark moves of using things around him. The cast especially Ma Li, Yu Yang and Qiao Shan were able to provide few funny moments, while the rest were given minor roles.
In the end, this was a film that you should not expect a lot. It was intended as something to please audience, mainly family with young children cause I am not sure it would be loved by most adults. Btw, there were some scenes during the mid end credit plus a bit of Chinese New Year wishes but no post end credit scene. For me and my wife, this was not something that we loved in Jackie Chan's long list of films, but more like something to cross from our list. And though it's not an increase of quality from the original movie, at least this one did not have the annoying characters reappearing. So if you want to see Jackie Chan doing his best, then this one would not fit into the category.
Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
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