Legendary martial arts stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li come together onscreen for the first time ever in director Rob Minkoff's time-traveling take on the Monkey King fable that finds an American teen transported back to ancient China after wandering into a pawn shop and discovering the king's fighting stick. Once there, the adventurous teen joins an army of fierce warriors who have sworn to free their imprisoned king at all costs. In addition to appearing as the mythical Monkey King, Li assumes
the role of a silent monk, and Chan appears in the role of kung fu master Lu Yan. Famed action choreographer Yuen Woo Ping presides over the fight sequences. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Thanks to the two stars' disparate styles - the laser-like focus of Li and the whirlwind whimsy of Chan - The Forbidden Kingdom makes up for its flaws with plenty of eye-popping moments.
If you're a big Jackie Chan and/or Jet Li fan this movie was made for you and you should go see it on the big screen once. But because of a complete lack of storytelling effort from the filmmakers, there's no reason to ever see it more than once.
Kung fu fever and fluff mix it up with hordes of floating knights in shining armor with bad attitude, and just a little heavy on the dressing, courtesy of the costume department.
Kung fu fever and fluff mix it up with hordes of floating knights in shining armor with bad attitude, and just a little heavy on the dressing, courtesy of the costume department.
The first onscreen meeting of screen legends Jackie Chan and Jet Li is possibly reason enough to see this fantasy, whose extravagant martial arts sequences are choreographed by Woo-ping Yuen, whose signature was inked in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
... despite falling prey to some of the anticipate problems, it ultimately emerges victorious, perhaps wobbling a bit, but only in the giddy manner of the drunken master played by Chan.
If The Forbidden Kingdom missteps, it's by assuming that its digitally enhanced stunts are more impressive than they are and, therefore, lavishing more attention on the kinetics than the story.
Yeah, it's a dopey kid's movie, but -- significant detail -- one that feels like it was actually written for kids ... Also, whenever things threaten to get too schlocky, this amazing villainess with a magic bullwhip shows up.
It would be little without its superb martial arts sequences, so its good to report that the movie isn't just filled with them, but that each fight was choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping.
The story, which should be forbidden, keeps coming back for more. Whenever the plot pops up, from predictable love scenes to the villainess who hates men for no reason to the crypto-Confucian lines, you keep wishing for the next fist to fly.
Hmmmm the usual curious mystic honk kong phooey chop sockey spiritual action flick based in the Orient. What can I say...it looks lovely with beautiful green vistas and magical splashes of light and sorcery....but the story is the usual weird and wonderful mess which is kinda unoriginal and boring. Its the usual
wizards, martial arts, magic and evil henchmen by the numbers hahaThe heroes (Jackie and Jet) train and make a martial arts expert outta of useless 80's lookin American kid who somehow travels to another world of mystic wizards and monkey kings and of course..manages to save it no worries, surprise surprise hehe.There's nothing special here atall really...its all been see before and is rather cliched. Chan and Li are good together for sure but they need to do something more original.
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