Loyalist to the genre of Hong Kong action cinema will obviously have issues with “The Forbidden Kingdom” which is the first ever onscreen collaboration of martial arts greats Jackie Chan and Jet Li. However, folks looking for a family oriented PG-13 fantasy adventure film (where you are willing to suspend your disbeliefs for about 2 hours) will leave the theatre very entertained by what this major motion picture has to offer its viewers.
Long story short, Director Rob Minkoff, Writers John Fusco, Ch’eng-En Wu, and Producer Casey Silver have created a “Wizard of Oz” meets “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” meets “Karate Kid” type of film where a South Boston teen named Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano), is magically transported to ancient China to overthrow the evil Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) who has unfairly assumed governing of a once peaceful land.
Along Jason’s journey he meets the drunken kung fu master, Lu Yan (Jackie Chan); an enigmatic and skillful Silent Monk (Jet Li); and a vengeance-bent kung fu beauty, Golden Sparrow (Crystal Liu Yi Fei), who lead him on his quest to return an enchanted staff to its rightful owner, the Monkey King (also played by Jet Li).
OK, so the plot is a bit thin, and some of the dialogue seems to be taken straight out of a video game (as in the case of Morgan Benoit who plays Lupo a “Boston bully”), but what this film lacks in those areas, it more than makes up for in its cinematography, special effects, and light humor.
Directorially Rob Minkoff who’s past credits include “The Lion King”, “Stuart Little”, and “Stuart Little 2” does a surprisingly good job at driving the reins on this project and keeping an even pacing on what must have been very complex and heavily storyboarded scenes.
The only major complaint that I and other hardcore fans of this genre may have is that many of the fight scenes seem to rely more on wirework rather than pushing the actors to their physical limits. This is especially a shame when Jet Li and Jackie Chan finally have a chance to showcase their skills during a one-on-one sparring competition that comes of somewhat disappointing if compared to their solo efforts in past movies. Could it be that the talents of Action Choreographer, Action Director, Executive Producer Woo-ping Yuen were stretched too thin to allow for the orchestration of more memorable fight sequences as his previous work in “Fearless”, “Unleashed”, and the “Matrix” series?
Nonetheless, “The Forbidden Kingdom” does rank high in providing a very glossy and packaged product that moviegoers are expecting from fantasy based action adventure films these days and should hopefully stand the test of time. My personal favorite visual treat came in the form of the deadly White Hair Demoness, Ni Chang (Li Bing Bing) who can command her locks as well as her whip and sword making her a truly powerful and mystical adversary to defeat.
Overall, teenagers and adults looking to escape from the real world for a couple of hours will find this film quite enjoyable, but fans of Jet Li and Jackie Chan looking for another great movie to place in their personal lists of must see classics may be hesitant to include this one in their top five picks.
The best strategy to have a good time with this film is to empty your mind of everything you’ve seen before, and you will leave the theatre very fulfilled.
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For More Information Visit:
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http://www.forbiddenkingdommovie.com
