It could have been better... (spoilers)
Firstly, I was glad to see that Jackie was going to direct himself again given the successes in the 80's, and particularly since he was known for being a bit of a perfectionist on the film set and also since his directorial abilities had been publicly brought into question pre Miracles (Lady Rose). However, while there were some signature Jackie Chan parts to this film, there were a lot of things that could have been better. I appreciate that the film has been targeted somewhat at a young Chinese audience, but if making a great film had been the main aim, then I would have done the following differently (i'm not chinese which may explain some of the differences):
-the script needed a big edit (it's far too preaching; there were a lot of locations and a lot of artifacts and the play of the movie was not easy to follow/memorable (should have given a text indicator on the screen when change of location - this was in the trailers, but not on the Blu-ray I saw); it was not realistic to see JC turn from bounty hunter to world saviour, and the end of the film certainly seemed built around the action sequence rather than a sensible script). The 3D printers were unrealistic.
-the jungle scene. hmm it just felt different to the rest of the movie. And trying to be funny but not succeeding.
-not had the main character called JC (that's just pretentious)
-don't use special effects as much - there's no need for it (Jackie still can do the moves) and it's obvious when it's used (ie. the intro, the zoom out from the jungle (what was that about?), the explosion in the jungle, the factory blowing up, the volcano scene etc Don't get me started on Who Am I..)
-don't surround yourself with actors who are a lot younger than you. It just doesn't feel right.
-when doing the chewing gum bit, should have used the signature slap on the wrist move. don't put them on your phone like some cheap advertising thing.
-if you're going to get actors to do Chinese and English, get native Chinese/English speakers rather than people who have learnt it.
-don't have a film spoken in so many languages. It makes it feel disjointed.
-I don't speak Chinese, but it seems to me that speaking in Cantonese allows for more expressive humour than mandarin
-where was the humour? There were elements of the cheeky chappie Asian Hawk character of the past (ie. in the photographic room), but there wasn't enough of it (and there could have been but for the direction of the script)
-should have had a JC music single over the end credits (the duet in the middle was pretty non descript)
-shouldn't have pinched the music from Who Am I and remixed it - lazy.
-a few actors who weren't that great (or maybe they were being directed to overact..)
-overdramatic incidental music at times
-french actress in the jungle shooting the machine gun. I don't know if it was supposed to be a hark back to operation condor, but it fealt like a blatant rip and it wasn't funny in either film.
-it was good to see the cameo by jackie's wife in the film at the end, but the lead up to it could have been done much better that just a woman on the end of a phone.
I'm not trying to put down Jackie's movie. Just pointing out areas i think it could have been improved to have made it a lot better overall. I know Jackie is still a good actor, can still do action, has been in some very good films over the last few years. Also the fact that there are some very good parts to this film is why it is disappointing that this film was not as good as it could have been. I think it will seem a bit better after a second viewing however.
Still, am looking forward to the next police story.. which hopefully will have a better script/direction, and not have him surrounded by a bunch of young people again.