Categories: LocalMovie Reviews

The Forbidden Kingdom

The union of two of the Kung Fu masters of the last 20+ years is finally here, and even though I would have preferred a more contemporary film, this fantasy grounded adventure for sure at the very least entertains.
We open the film with a strange fighter fighting off a horde of on slaughters above the clouds of a high mountain top, only to awaken with the protagonist, Jason (Michael Angarano), from his dream. After visiting an Asian pawn shop to fulfill his Kung Fu movie addiction, Jason is magically teleported to a feudal Asian land through the power of the Staff of the Monkey King. Jason quickly runs into Lu (Jackie Chan) an immortal of these lands who tells him the back story of the Staff. The gist of it all is the Monkey King was crazy, great fighter that the emperor loved him. The jealous generic bad guy, Jade Warlord, turns the Monkey King into stone before he can stop his power grab as the emperor is on his century’s long meditation. Lu informs Jason that he must return this staff to the Monkey King and defeat the Jade Warlord. The pair is quickly partnered up with a mysterious girl named Golden Sparrow and team up with a roaming monk (Jet Li) searching for the staff as they march on to the Forbidden Kingdom; training Jason Kung Fu along the way.
The films plot is an ok fantasy and doesn’t really give much back story outside what I have given. There are a couple of twists along the way but the film fails to achieve the level I think it was aiming for; from a fantastical stand point. The action in the film is pretty good for the most part. Nothing is so amazing that you have to see it, but it is definitely solid. The stand out fight of the film is obviously Li versus Chan when the mistaken each other for enemies and begin a fight over the staff. The fight keeps the high wire stuff that fills a lot of the film, mostly out of the fight and it is a joy to watch these two go at it. In fact, the action works best when it keeps it real and not flying all over the place. The Warlord’s henchman uses her hair to fight for instance and you are just left going, “what?”
With all that said, the action is fairly constant and pretty good. The acting is also ok, with Angarano getting a bit annoying from time to time, but the teenage angst hero is supposed to act that way to meet is stereotype quota I think. Jet Li doesn’t talk much, but where he shines is as his dual role as the Monkey King that is just so weird and bizarre, but still a lot of fun at how silly Li acts with it all; nice to see him out of his serious shell. Chan does the best job, supplying plenty of humor and handling the “emotional” stuff well enough. But you aren’t here for the acting, are you?
In the end, The Forbidden Kingdom is a solid action fantasy, that doesn’t really add too much to the genre. The action is solid and if you know that the plot is going to be a bit silly and skewed a bit younger then the normal martial arts crowd would be, the movie is a lot more watchable. Don’t expect a masterpiece and I think you will be pleasantly supplied by the silly fun and action of this entertaining pre-summer flick.
7/10

zac

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lecia says:

April 30, 2008 at 1:37 pm

http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2008/04/18/forbidden_kingdom/

"The Forbidden Kingdom"
Jackie Chan and Jet Li join forces on-screen for the first time in this lavish action movie.

By Stephanie Zacharek

April 18, 2008 | Jackie Chan has said for more than 10 years that he's wanted to work with his friend Jet Li, but plenty of fans probably figured they'd have long white beards -- or long white hair -- before the two action stars finally got together. With "The Forbidden Kingdom," it's finally happened. In this adventure-fantasy -- and love letter to the conventions of martial-arts movies -- Chan and Li each have dual roles: Chan plays an elderly Bostonian shopkeeper and a "drunken master" for whom wine is an elixir of strength. Li plays a monk well-versed in the martial arts and, even more magnificently, appears as the wiry, mischievous Monkey King, a mythical Chinese figure with the ability to transform himself into 72 different animals or objects. The bad news about "The Forbidden Kingdom" is that the picture built around these two stars -- it's directed by Rob Minkoff, who made the wonderful "Stuart Little" movies, as well as "The Lion King" -- isn't quite worthy of their skill and charm, and the plot is far more convoluted than it needs to be. The good news is that the picture is so good-natured, it's easy enough to disregard many of its flaws. "The Forbidden Kingdom" is lavish in its approach -- it attempts some rather extravagant battle scenes -- yet it still seems modest in its goals: It's more interested in being a Saturday-afternoon entertainment than a blockbuster.

Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) is a shy Boston teenager who adores martial-arts movies, renting them from a sleepy little store in Chinatown run by the elderly firecracker Old Hop (Chan). In the backroom of Hop's dusty store, Jason finds an antique bowstaff; a mystical turn of events sends him back in time -- and to China -- to return the staff to its rightful owner. His allies in this dangerous mission are two men he meets in his travels there: Lu Yan (Chan), who's constantly swigging from his jug of wine, and the Silent Monk (Li), a serene figure in flowing white robes who is also a skilled fighter. Jason also meets a beautiful young warrior maiden named Sparrow (Liu Yifei), whose mission, it turns out, dovetails with his own: Both of them must fight the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) and Ni Chang (Li Bingbing), a fierce, ambitious beauty whose streaming white tresses are part of her weaponry. By vanquishing them both, Jason will be able to free the long-imprisoned Monkey King (Li).

Confused yet? You will be. The story, written by John Fusco, is a mishmash of Chinese legend, literature, films and TV shows that barely holds together. The Monkey King is a figure in the Ming Dynasty novel "Journey to the West," and his exploits have been dramatized in everything from opera to TV shows. "The Forbidden Kingdom" also includes references to numerous Hong Kong action classics, among them Ronnie Yu's magnificent 1993 "The Bride with White Hair" (which was itself based on a 1950s novel).

But the befuddling plot doesn't keep "The Forbidden Kingdom" from being an enjoyable spectacle. The picture's attempts at humor don't quite work: The banter between Li and Chan could use some more polishing from the director, partly because while Li and Chan speak English reasonably well, their hesitancy prevents their timing from being as crisp as it needs to be. Their martial-arts skills aside, though, both Li and Chan have already proved to be marvelous actors: Chan's comic charms won't wear out even after his body has slowed down, and Li, in pictures like "Jet Li's Fearless" and "Unleashed," is such a magnetic, sensitive presence that he doesn't even need to fight to hold our attention.

That said, the fight sequences involving Chan and Li in "The Forbidden Kingdom" -- which were choreographed by the great Woo-ping Yuen, the man behind the action in the "Matrix" and "Kill Bill" movies -- are thrilling to watch. As they challenge each other, there's more joy than aggression in their graceful contrapuntal kicking, their swift, responsive jabs. When Chan and Li match wits, each celebrates the other's presence. This isn't just a martial-arts display; it's generosity and camaraderie in motion.