It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a Jackie Chan adventure so sitting down with Chinese Zodiac, I was hoping for that good old JC action feeling wash over me. I got about half of that.

First, the first half or so of this movie is a mess. I’m wondering if stuff got lost in translation, but a lot of ‘plot’ points and character ‘development’ is dropped in seemingly at random with no context. The movie is about Asian Hawk (Jackie Chan) who steals art by making replicas to dupe his marks and then selling them at auction. This brings forth the main theme, that cultures all over the world are being robbed of their history by crooks with few morals. Cue Jackie’s conscience for the final act of the movie.

With that out of the way, there’s half heated effort to give some characters a back story which amounts to little more than having an argument over the telephone. You have no idea who they are talking to and then they pop up at the end of the movie to wrap up the mystery that no one cares about. There’s one character who comes out of no where to help Jackie and then she somehow gets shoehorned into making the entire rest of the movie happen. It was the weirdest character introduction ever.

The directing and editing is really amateur for most of the movie too which is weird since Chan has spent more time behind the camera than many people have been alive. Abrupt and confusing cuts, sudden fast pans and dolly shots are all over the place that can be very disorienting.  It feels really rushed and haphazard and it doesn’t settle down until the hand to hand fight scenes occur. Here, at least, Jackie Chan’s work shines as it should. It’s well thought out and blocked with nice wide shots and cuts that make sense. It’s generally easy to follow and fun to watch. It’s got all his trademarks with extensive prop and environment work with dashes of wirework for the more over the top ideas.

The action is a mixed bag though. The opening scene is creative, but really goofy and hard to swallow with Jackie rolling around in a skate suit. At one point he takes a 20 foot vertical leap on his stomach to a street below that probably would have left any human being cracked in two. As I mentioned the hand to hand fights are great (most notable is the one in the counterfeit art warehouse), but the movie wears out it’s welcome by adding one more action scene after that. Everything is in position to end but they went ahead with a ridiculous sky diving finale that was better left on the page. One more knock for Chinese Zodiac. Most of the special effects look terrible.

Thinking back to Jackie Chan’s catalog, Chinese Zodiac reminds me a lot of Project A. They share the same type of world travel and comedic stylings, but Chinese Zodiac is worse in almost every way. In fact, I’d recommend checking out Project A and Project A 2 long before seeing this. Even better, watch Armour of God, where this Asian Hawk character first appears! Nearly 30 years apart and a much better movie from start to finish.