The Forbidden Kingdom April 24th, 2010
Originally Written 04/19/08
I saw The Forbidden Kingdom last night. I was worried that it might suck, but was hopefully with it getting a good rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so we decided to check it out. The film was a treat, even though it wasn’t perfect.
It was good fun to see Jackie Chan and Jet Li together in a movie. Yes they’re showing their age a little bit, but better late than never. Both of them still have their chops too. There was a lot of good martial arts. Some of the editing was a bit choppy, but the fight choreography was impressive.
The movie had lots of nice visuals too. It’s a pastiche of a whole bunch of kung-fu movies and legends, but it’s obviously made by people who love the genre, and it’s good fun for fans. Unfortunately the movie is flawed.
The biggest problem with it is the choice of actors for the kid who played the chosen one. I can be down with using an American in the roll, but the kid they chose had no charisma or screen presence, so he ended up sucking energy from a lot of scenes. He did get better towards the end, but I would’ve definitely liked someone else.
I didn’t hate the film, and I had fun with it, but it could’ve been better. Still, for fans of the genre, who can overlook some faults, it’s worth checking out.