Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Cast:
- Michael Angarano
- Jackie Chan
- Jet Li
- Collin Chou
|
 |
Review - "The Forbidden Kingdom"
Reviewer: Charise Payne
Rating:
The Forbidden Kingdom is a charming martial-arts film that is fun for the whole family. The plot is full of fun characters, weird developments and cliché proclamations, but somehow, it all works. The film begins with Jason (Michael Angarano of Sky High), a kid from Boston, waking up from a dream about being a kung fu master. You see, he loves kung fu movies, especially the harder-to-find films. Jason’s favorite pawnshop is a Chinese one, where they sell all sorts of items, from swords to bootleg DVDs. The shop is run by an old Chinese man (Jackie Chan) whose English is very bad and hard to understand. While at the shop, Jason's curiosity gets the better of him when he opens a partially closed door and sees an ancient wooden staff on the floor. The old man tells Jason the story of his family and how they have been caring for the staff for 100s of years and are waiting for its rightful owner to come collect it.
On his way home from the pawnshop, Jason is beat up by some thugs that force him to get the old man to open his shop so the bullies can rob him. While protecting his store, the old man gets shot. He gives Jason the enchanted wooden stick which magically transports him (how this happened, I still can't tell you) to ancient China, where he says, "I can't free the Monkey King! I gotta get home!" Then he grabs some American money that was on the table and runs for it. But as he runs he is found by the Jade Warlord's men. They want the stick, and Jason is surrounded.
Luckily for Jason, Lu Yan (Jackie Chan), a drunken wanderer, happens to come along and, what do you know, he is a kung fu expert who takes down the Jade Warlord’s men. He also knows all the 411 on the magic wooden staff and tells Jason it is his duty to return the stick back to the Monkey King (Jet Li). The Monkey King, who is my favorite character, lost the enchanted stick while fighting the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou). He was tricked into giving it up, turned to stone by the Warlord’s magic, and now resides in the Warlord's palace as a statue. Jason now must travel to Five Elements Mountain and give the staff back to the captive Monkey King, set him free from his stone prison, and kill the Jade Warlord. Lu Yan, Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu), a beautiful yet angry girl, and the Silent Monk (Jet Li ) agree to help Jason with his quest.
While the fellowship travels towards the palace, the villain Jade Warlord, who reminds me of a drag queen in armor, learns the magic staff has returned back to the Forbidden Kingdom, and he calls for his lackeys to find it. "Summon the witch!" he says. "The one born of wolves!" The silver-haired witch Ni Chang (Bingbing Li) has magical powers: her hair grows enormous lengths instantly (I would have loved to have taken a pair of scissors to it), and the girl knows how to use a whip. She is the tracker sent to find Jason and bring him and his stick back to the Jade Warlord.
I loved the martial arts; it was the best part about the film. The fight sequences, choreographed is by Woo-ping Yuen, are amazing, but the wire work was a bit to obvious. The hand-to-hand combat is creative and thrilling to watch. Watching Jet Li and Jackie Chan fight one another was fantastic. Even though the battle itself didn’t go anywhere, neither won, which might have been the purpose, to show they are evenly skilled. It was very entertaining to watch such skilled masters take each other on.
John Fusco, the screenwriter (Hidalgo), seems to take some of his ideas from other Chinese films (The Karate Kid comes to mind) to create his vision. The fictional world he created mixes martial arts, fantasy, magic, and comedy. The Forbidden Kingdom is a beautifully shot film. Oscar-winning cinematographer Peter Pau captures the gorgeous Chinese landscape: the trees, the fields, the desert, and the snow-capped mountains all come alive through this master's lens.
The only problem with The Forbidden Kingdom was the pointless storylines and the cliché moments (Sparrow's you-killed-my-father subplot was awkwardly concluded and the scenes in Boston felt wrong, like they were unfinished and just thrown in there). I don’t know if it was the director Rob Minkoff's vision, but the story seemed to go in a lot of different directions, and I never felt a solid conclusion. The film is a charming, silly and fun; most fans will enjoy it. But I feel the film could have been better if it would have been more focused and without all the predictable moments.
|
Advertising 
