This film was marketed on star power. Never before have two of today's greatest martial-arts-performing actors, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan, been featured together in the same movie. Two heroic stars. Two completely different styles of fighting. Two hours of intense action! 'Sign me up!" I said to myself and I put the film's opening date on my calendar. Unfortunately, for me, the film did not live up to its hype, and even amped-up fight scenes involving these two stars were not enough to save them from falling.
A film always begins with, and is usually remembered by, its story. In The Forbidden Kingdom, we follow the journey of a young Kung-Fu enthusiast from the Bronx, Jason (played by newcomer, Michael Angarano), who somehow travels through time and space to a "forbidden kingdom" full of fantastical warriors, some of whom are even referred to as immortals. Much like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, Jason just wants to get home. In order to do so, he must return a special bo staff to the Monkey King who has been frozen in stone until its return. Confused? So was I. Do I care about Jason being able to get home so that he can watch his Kung Fu DVDs? Not really.
In case you haven't noticed, this movie is full of imagination and impossibilities. What I usually love about Kung Fu movies is that they somehow make the impossible seem possible. In fact, in Jackie Chan's case, we are used to the idea of him doing his own stunts and wowing us with his talent and with what he is actually capable of doing. Thus, when this movie begins with a bunch of wire-flying acrobatics, magical power weapons, and time travel, I was a bit put off.
But what perhaps put me off the most was the kid. Now I actually thought that Michael Angarano was a pretty good actor and his role reminded me a lot of Shia LaBeouf's role in Transformers. However, what was he doing there? I came to see a Jet Li/Jackie Chan movie and fully expected them to be the lead stars. Instead, the kid takes up virtually all of the screentime and Jet Li and Jackie Chan are reduced to supporting characters. He did impress me towards the end by learning Kung Fu and showing off some skills (think "nun chuck skills" from Napoleon Dynamite), but what was so terrible was that he learned it in about 1-2 days and by then felt ready to take on the immortals by himself. Even in a mythical land like the Forbidden Kingdom I would expect there to be a bit longer of a learning curve, but whatever. His return to the Bronx sets up for a complete Karate Kid rip-off, missing only the iconic "Crane Kick."
The fact that we saw so much of the kid led to the fact that I didn't get to see as much of Jet Li and Jackie Chan in their glory. Half of what we see of Jet Li is of this goofy Monkey King who is so annoying that you want to walk up into the screen and slap him. And Jackie Chan spends most of the time drunk and slurring his words (not that his words aren't slurred a bit to begin with); disappointingly, we don't get to see him fight with a bunch of unique objects (such as umbrellas, ladders, etc) but instead must settle for drunken boxing, which I think is stupid.
This movie wasn't all bad though. We do get to see a lot of intense fight scenes; my favorite being the one between Jackie Chan and Jet Li (as the silent monk). There are a couple of hot chicks in there as well, including Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu) and the White Witch (Bingbing Li), not to be confused with the Narnian version. Her long white hair was a pretty good look for her.
At best, I think that this movie will be remembered for a pretty cool fight scene between Jet Li and Jackie Chan held inside a temple in the middle of the film. At worst, it will be remembered as a miserable joke and will prevent this potent pairing from recurring.
The Monkey King?
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