PANDA PLAN - Mark Reviews Movies

Panda Plan, Well Go USA

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 17, 2024

Panda Plan is little more than that old formula of one person taking on a squad of bad guys in a single, confined location. The specific gimmick of this script, written by director Zhang Luan with Wei Xu and Meng Yida, is that the one-man army taking on those scoundrels is none other than international action star Jackie Chan. Oh, the location is a zoo on an island, and the criminals are trying to steal a baby panda. Those details are kind of important, too.

Putting Chan, essentially playing himself, in this situation is an ingenious idea, even if the broad stroke of it has already been done with at least one other action-movie actor past his heyday. Chan, however, is a different kind of star, whose appeal has always been in the infectious energy he can bring to action sequences, filled with evidence that—during the prime of his career, at least—he's doing all of those punches and kicks and dangerous stunts for real.

There's a very funny moment here, as Chan's Jackie battles the head honcho of the team trying to steal the panda, where the villain stops our hero's attacks with assorted shelves and carts in a narrow hallway. "I've seen your movies," the mohawked James (Temur Mamisashvili) tells Jackie, and we laugh, because we have seen Chan use pieces of the set and assorted props and whatever's at hand in a fight countless times before, too. In that one moment, the movie displays a degree of self-awareness and cleverness that one wishes were present almost anywhere else in the material.

Instead, though, it relies on that familiar formula, cheap gags (involving panda flatulence and feces, among other oddities), and the hope that Chan's presence, as an occasionally self-deprecating but mostly sincere version of himself, will carry what's a very strange action comedy. It's weird on a few levels, in fact.

Its other main attraction, a digital panda cub, and the silly humor are clearly meant to appeal to kids, while Chan and the premise itself are aimed at audience members who are old enough to know the actor's past work and the multiple examples of this plot blueprint at work. The tone, then, is off, too, because the movie is trying to be two distinct things at once, and the result might not appeal to anyone other than as a curiosity.

Does the plot even require any kind of summary? You likely know the basics already, just from the broad description at the top. Jackie agrees to be a functionary adoptee of the newborn panda, considering he is tired of always being pigeonholed into action roles and has nothing better to do (Some of the offers he receives for celebrity appearances kind of poke at how his fame has dwindled as of late). Plus, he, like the rest of the world, thinks the panda cub is cute.

Meanwhile, a team of mercenaries, hired by some vaguely Middle Eastern men, is preparing to raid the remote zoo, looking to capture the panda and get a payday of $100 million for their troubles. They end up with more trouble than anticipated, since, beyond the general incompetence of some of the team, Jackie is ready to protect his adopted panda with the help of the cub's "nanny" Xiao Zhu (Shi Ce) and his agent David (Wei Xiang).

Chan does some of the fighting and stunt work here, although it's a bit too obvious that the actor is holding back his punches (That early fight with Mamisashvili makes it appear as if Chan is struggling to keep up with his co-star) and uses a double for most of those more physical deeds. This is to be expected of Chan, of course, who rather famously announced more than a decade ago that his days of risking life and injury were behind him.

The filmmakers must know this, too, considering how much of the story relies on the star's persona and career for the plot, jokes, and, obviously, action. Instead of trying to figure out how to incorporate Chan's current limitations, though, Zhang attempts to cheat by way of framing and editing. It looks downright bad at times, with the camera aimed at some random element of a shot or some other thing blocking the view of the action. A fight in a bamboo-packing station, for example, becomes a jumble of insert shots at key beats in the sequence.

There's that part of the potential fun of the movie gone, then, leaving us with the gags, which aren't staged much better. They're also too childish or strange in nature, such as when Jackie and David try to get milk from a nursing rhino to feed the panda. The notion that some of the henchmen are too starstruck by Jackie to fight him or get in his way is amusing, at least.

Chan, too, remains his charming self, which isn't nothing in a movie that tries to charm its way through its shortcomings and tonal inconsistencies. Panda Plan provides a good idea for a potentially silly and entertaining movie, but the movie itself doesn't come close to pulling off that trick.

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