
When it comes to movie roles, only a handful of Asians i.e. Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding, Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Bowen Yang, and Greta Lee are active. There is an Asian influence present in The Tiger’s Apprentice but what we seem to forget is its cast. From the looks of it, the movie uses its cast to give it credibility rather than story. The creators seem to have been so involved in selling the film to their chosen cast that a lot of effort was not put into actually creating the movie. At the end of the day, the result was a barebone story that was a combination of a few aesthetically pleasing scenes and moderate entertainment value.
The story centers on a fifteen-year-old boy by the name of Tom Lee (Brandon Soo Hoo), who was raised by his grandmother Kheng Hua Tan in a run-down Victorian house in San Francisco filled with suspicion of being a witch. Now, even though he appears to be a regular high school teenager, there is more to him than seems as he accidentally hurls a bully into the ceiling during a small scuffle. Unfortunately, this does, however, attract the attention of Loo (Yeoh), who possesses unpleasant intentions, in other facets. She is after a magical locket that is associated with Tom’s grandmother and it can wreak unimaginable havoc in the wrong hands.
Atul embraces life as Hu (Golding), the zodiac tiger who can transform into a human, rescues Tom with a necklace. Hu, together with other zodiac warriors, is on a mission to prevent Loo from harming mankind. In their ways, Hu and other zodiac members guide Tom to be one of the guardians. Besides, Hu acquaints Tom with Mistral (Oh) the dragon, and Sydney (Yang) the rat spy and thief. No doubt, the forces of good begin counteracting evil with efforts like that. All of it prepares Tom for a new role in his story, the keeper of a world that is yet to be created.
For those who came up with such a grand cast and paired it with the thoroughly captivating Asian setting, themes, and characters, there is a lot that The Tiger’s Apprentice can deliver. While for me, I do believe that there is little originality seen in this film, as it misses the mark in being creative or at least innovative. The 2003 YA novel by Laurence Yep (part one of a trilogy) is out of my reach but from looking at a plot synopsis on Wikipedia, it seems to be almost the same as the idea that used to strive to blend Chinese myths into the present but is now just another typical fantasy epic belonging to Lopez who made Harry Potter a dreamed concept of a pint sized boy bafflingly gifted with abilities that with assets a couple of rounds re then shoved in packs. Rather than assisting the students with a paradigm shift, filmmakers have no interest in their parents and do only on the myriad of such aids Which are already on shelves. This is one of the few films where you can effortlessly visualize every twist of the storyline while watching, but are completely blank about what the movie even was when asked afterwards.
While there are positive sides to remember, umm ok animations and not that amusing laughter are unnecessarily sprinkled. All together, The Tiger’s Apprentice is a decent picture with certain flaws.
However, this film looks more like one of those lurching projects that look like they gathered all of the elements necessary on paper for an original and novel film but ended up not producing any at all.
It might be able to be interesting and vibrant enough to keep the younger audience’s interest as the movie goes on. Maybe if many of them viewed it, there would be motivation for a new set of mythology, and characters feature film which would do the story justice.
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