The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

5/10

Starring

Jackie Chan

Jet Li

Collin Chou

Liu Yifei

Directed by Rob Minkoff

The Forbidden Kingdom was at the time the most anticipated martial arts action movie. We were all waiting to see Jackie Chan and Jet Li line up and make a movie together and go up against one another. When the movie came and they did, I for one was disappointed. The movie did not have a strong enough story and a fight scene of both did not meet the level known of both actors. Other fight scenes were much better and saved the movie from being a total waste.

In the movie both were on the good side, but since they were meeting for the first time and did not know it, there was what I will call a scuffle. The movie had with it one of the laziest writing, and there were times I was confused on to which audience this movie was written for.

The movie plot is more of a fantasy tale mixed with action. A young man named Jason who is a fan of martial arts movies goes to china town to buy some marital arts movies when he discovers a golden staff. The staff magically transport him (after some series of events) to ancient China where there is an ongoing battle between the Monkey King followers (good guys) and the Jade Warlord’s (bad guys).

 

Jason meets Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) who told him the history of the staff, of how the Warlord tricked the Monkey King by trapping him and trying to steal his staff. He then informs Jason and how come he is in possession of it (a whole the chosen one tale, these fantasy stories seem to always have).

So Jason and Lu are joined by another two people a lady warrior seeking revenge on the Jade Warlord and a silent monk (Jet Li), all four embark on the adventure to free the Monkey King so he can stop the evil Jade Warlord.

The comedy did not bother to make sense and every time Jason (Michael Anagarani) was on the screen I kept having flashbacks of Karate Kid (1984). What made it worse is that, they made him a dumbass version of Daniel LaRusso. The movie also had an inconsistent pace.

The movie was a moderate financial success, which I bet is one of the reasons we never saw the two pair up again. The movie also had mixed to positive reviews from critics.

I will not be seeing this movie again, twice is enough.