The Forbidden Kingdom Review

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 04.21.2008

Reports of Fearless being the last Jet Li movie were highly exaggerated.

Directed By: Rob Minkoff
Written By: John Fusco
Runtime: 113 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of martial arts action and some violence.
Official Website: The Forbidden Kingdom Official Website

The Monkey King/The Silent Monk - Jet Li
Lu Yan/Old Hop - Jackie Chan
Jason Tripitikas - Michael Angarano
The Jade Warlord - Collin Chou
Golden Sparrow - Yifei Liu
Ni Chang - Li Bing Bing
The Jade Emperor - Deshun Wang
Lupo - Morgan Benoit

For many years there's been much conjecture about pairing up the two cinematic icons, Jackie Chan and Jet Li in a movie together. The two martial arts masters, who also happen to be good friends, have never quite managed to work out a deal that would finally see Chan and Li in the same film, though talks and rumors started going around after Jackie Chan and Jet Li became established names with mainstream American moviegoing audiences in the late 1990's.

About two years ago, news finally surfaced in which movie fans would finally get to see Chan and Li in a movie together - in an English language Chinese fantasy epic based on the classic story Into The West, and it would be directed by Rob Minkoff who had most recently directed The Haunted Mansion and Stuart Little 2 . . . OK. Not exactly Ronny Yu, Zhang Yimou, Stephen Chow, or even Jackie Chan type of caliber or credentials here.

In The Forbidden Kingdom, it begins with the young Jason (Angarano of 24 and Sky High), an avid martials arts and kung fu movie freak. He always gets his favorite picks from Old Hop's shop in the Chinatown district of Boston. Hop's an eccentric old fogey that looks a lot like Jackie Chan under heavy amounts of old age make-up . . . or maybe its just Jackie Chan without any make-up, he is pretty old you know. Jason notices in the back of Hop's store an interesting staff, which Jason recognizes as being brandished by The Monkey King (Li) of Chinese literature fame which he's also seen in his dreams. Hop claims the staff has been in his family for generations and is waiting to return it to its rightful owner.

Jason is unfortunately intercepted by a greasy mook by the name of Lupo (Benoit) and his thugs. Lupo's a punk that looks like he should be an extra in West Side Story 40 years ago and happens to know . . . kung fu. Since Jason is tight with Hop, Lupo coerces Jason into bringing Lupo's gang to Hop's store. Why it's never said, but Lupo apparently believes Hop is swimming in the dough. So Jason becomes even more of an absolute moron than we already believed in his short amount of screentime and assists Lupo's gang into gaining access to Hop's store. Hop attempts to stop them, and Lupo shoots Hop. Hop then entrusts the staff to Jason who flees from the gang, but in the process falls from the top of a building and is transported back to ancient China.

Not knowing how he got there or how to get home, Jason is thrust into a conflict against the Jade Warlord (Chou) and the Jade army who want the staff Jason possesses. Jason inexplicably meets the drunken kung fu master and scholar, Lu Yan (Chan again), who helps Jason escape from the Jade Army. According to Lu Yan, the Jade Warlord imprisoned the immortal Monkey King in stone. In order to finally destroy the Monkey King, the Jade Warlord needs to destroy the staff.

So they begin their journey to return the staff to The Monkey King, whose physical body (turned to stone by the Jade Warlord) is held at the Element Mountain in the Kingdom of Heaven beyond the border of Heaven to the human world. Lu Yan and Jason soon acquire the assistance of Golden Sparrow (Liu), a young woman whose family and village were destroyed by the Jade Warlord. And following that they meet The Silent Monk (Li), a man who seeks the seeker that will return the staff to the Monkey King. Despite being a monk, he has no problem with indulging in the drinking of spirits and urinating on Lu Yan in jest (at least there's a competent reasoning for this).

Most of the Chinese in the movie already seem to know the English language when speaking with Jason, though Sparrow only speaks in the third person for some unstated reason. The Jade Warlord also sends after the white haired demoness, Ni Chang (Bing Bing) to track the seeker and his companions in order to retrieve the staff. Ni Chang is a pretty vicious witch who has the power to extend her hair and use it as a weapon as well as her nasty whip and penchant for walking on top of cherry blossom trees. How cruel.

One of the problems with the story is why is the Jade Warlord evil? OK, he doesn't like The Monkey King because he's mischievious and defiant. But what is it the Jade Warlord wants exactly? There are hints and implications that the Jade Warlord will destroy civilization or the kingdoms . . . but then why would the nice, gentle, and benevolent Jade Emperor put someone like the Jade Warlord in power in the first place and trust him to do well?

Michael Angarano is essentially the poor man's Shia LeBouf. There's not much to work with for his character since all we know about Jason is that he loves chopsocky flicks, he won't stand up for himself, and he easily betrays a close friend . . . which right off the bat makes it a little hard to like Jason.

The movie's script by John Fusco is a pretty big disappointment as its very predictable and derivative. As a director, Minkoff seems somewhat off in striking the right pace and tone with the film. At times it comes off as a total cheesy B, martial arts movie. There are points in the movie (such as the opening credits) and even in the score by David Buckley that they are trying to go for something akin to an homage for Enter The Dragon. This idea doesn't really work and it's not executed well enough.

Basically there's a bit of an awkward rush to the scenes and establishments of certain characters. The exposition feels obligatory as well as Li's entrance into the movie as the Silent Monk. After the Silent Monk comes into the story, we get the long-awaited, highly anticipated fight sequence between Jet Li and Jackie Chan. And it's definitely a great fight sequence despite both performers being past the prime of their careers, and using a lot of wire-work and less than practical FX. But in terms of the story the fight sequence feels arbitrary, as if to say "well we need Chan and Li to fight somewhere in this movie" so here it is. The conclusion to the fight basically makes it a little pointless.

The movie does share some of the same cast and crew as Li's falsely advertised "final" movie, Fearless, including the legendary movie fight scene choreographer, Yuen Wo Ping. The action sequences and Yuen Wo Ping's work are definitely still a sight to see and are probably the strongest reason to see the movie itself. Though, overall Fearless had much better, harder, and dramatic fights. And they of course lack the ugly brutality that made Danny The Dog (AKA known as Unleashed in the US) so amazing.

The 411: For another lame, cheeseball type of fantasy movie with basically the exact same plot as this one, see . . . Warriors of Virtue. For basically the same story but with more of an action, shoot 'em up bent see . . . Last Action Hero. If you really want to tempt fate and search out for something truly awful, watch the Sci-Fi Channel mini-series The Monkey King, starring Thomas Gibson aka Greg of Dharma and Greg fame. As for this movie, it's got some fun action sequences and there is a bit of a story there, it unfortunately just doesn't come together all too well. Hopefully this won't be the first AND last time Chan and Li do a film together. Something with more practical action that mixes up Jackie Chan and Jet Li cop movies would be a ton of fun.

Final Score:  5.5   [ Not So Good ]