Medallion, The
What has more wire than a telco office? The Medallion.
For the uninitiated, Wire-Fu is the name given by film-fans to the technique of using actors suspended by thin, but very strong wires in order to complete complex martial arts moves. The effect can be stunning or crappy depending on how it’s used. The best example of creative and entertaining Wire-Fu is the Matrix. Trinity’s dramatic walk on the wall, or Neo’s bullet dodging illustrates this best. The Medallion on the other hand over-uses and over complicates the technique. Even though it is strikingly obvious, filmmakers seem to keep trying to convince the audience otherwise. It ruins it.
Jackie Chan plays a Hong Kong detective, Eddie Yang, who is working with Interpol to capture an international smuggler, known only as Snakehead, played by Julian Sands. As the plot (slowly) thickens, we discover Snakeheads eveil scheme to kidnap the chosen one, a boy who has the power to combine two halves of a magical medallion, giving the owner superhuman powers and immortality. Yawn. It’s all been done before, even as a martial arts movie. One problem. Not a whole lotta martial arts in this movie.
Chan is getting older and it’s just a fact that he can’t do all the things he’s done in the past. He’s an excellent comedic actor, with good timing and a wit on and off camera, but his martial arts skills are waning, so even HE has to use the wires. Actors float around houses, castles and city streets like meat balloons although not as elegantly as Crouching Tiger and nowhere near as cool as The Matrix. The most garish and blatant example comes towards the final battle when all the punching and kicking is done while in mid air. Even before the characters achieve their super-powers, much of the combat makes use of Wire-Fu.
There are a few spots in the movie that were laugh out loud, particularly with the interaction between Jackie and Interpol hottie, Nicole James, played by Claire Forlani. Although not billed as one, The Medallion ends up being a family picture. Not one curse word is uttered and the action is cartoony and bloodless. Chan lands on his face from a 5 story drop, Wile E Coyote style, and simply gets up and pops his bones back into place a bit before walking off.
Barring a few minor laughs dispersed among the 90 minutes, The Medallion is boring cookie cutter stuffing, meant to pull Jackie Chan fans into the theatre. Hey, I think Jackie’s great too, but the latest in his collection doesn’t help to pull him from his ‘crap phase’. I mean, come on! The Tuxedo? Please, for the love of all that is good, let Rush Hour 3 be decent. Gawd, what am I saying?
Scuse me while I go rent Legend of Drunken Master to wipe my mind free of Chan contaminents.
