The long awaited combination of Jackie Chan and Jet Li in the same movie, The Forbidden Kindgom is a mix of The Karate Kid and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but without a soul.
Jason (Michael Angarano) is a White, South Boston kid obsessed with kung-fu movies. After some predictable over the top bullying by local toughs, he is transported to ancient/mystical China where he must learn kung fu and go on a quest to save the kingdom. Soon Jason encounters the Drunken Immortal (Chan) who spins a tale of prophecy that essentially foreshadows and summarizes the entire movie.
The scenery is gorgeous, the costumes (and actors) are beautiful, but the story never comes to life. Nearly every character is wooden, stiff and decidedly one dimensional. When Chan finally meets Silent Monk (Li), the requisite fight scene between them is fast paced, but hardly memorable.
The fight choreography was done by the legendary Yuen Wo Ping. If his name is not familiar to you, his movies are: The Matrix, Kill Bill and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and dozens of Hong Kong kung-fu movies. But, there is nothing new in these action sequences and, frankly, while wire tricks can make Keanu Reeves and Uma Thurman look amazing, they diminish martial arts masters like Li and Chan who don’t need to be propped up.
Chan (mid-fifties) and Li (mid-forties) may be past their primes, but far more could have been done with these two legends. Ultimately, if you absolutely love Crouching-Tiger-style wire fighting then you probably won’t mind the action. If not, you’ll start wondering when Ong Bak II is coming out while reminiscing about Rumble in the Bronx (still Chan’s best fight movie and all done without wires).
The real problem with the film is a lack of either dramatic tension or true fairy tale like feel. Overall, the movies screams “formula” and most everything is predictable and fails to present anything new (despite the fact that it is based on the Chinese Legend of the Monkey King). The characters rarely face any real conflicts and, as the ancient Chinese proverb goes: “without conflict, character cannot grow.”
The good news is that, other than lacking tension and being a bit boring, there’s nothing overtly “wrong” with the film. There are a couple strong female characters to broaden the appeal: Bingbing Li plays the evil White Haired Assassin, who looks like a Chinese version of Storm from the X-Men and Yifei Liu plays the super cute Golden Sparrow, who helps Jason while on her own quest. Additionally, the movie is safe for children, who will likely enjoy it immensely. But as PG-13 film clearly aiming for a broader audience than the 8-14 set, The Forbidden Kingdom disappoints.
The Forbidden Kingdom
Starring Jet Li and Jackie Chan
Opens tomorrow, April 18