The pairing of Jackie Chan (Rush Hour 3) and Jet Li (War) alone validates seeing the new martial arts saga The Forbidden Kingdom. It’s just unfortunate the film couldn’t rise to the level of its casting. The plot is cliché, the characters are uninspired and the fight scenes lack imagination.
Those criticisms aside, audiences should still find some merit in Kingdom, as the film gives its supremely talented duo enough showcase material to keep viewers fairly entertained.
The concept for The Forbidden Kingdom is essentially, “What if you got to live a kung fu movie?” Kung fu nut Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano, The Final Season) is teleported back to ancient China with the help of a magical staff in a pawn shop. There, he must take the staff back to its owner, the Monkey King (Li). In doing so, he can break the curse of the evil Jade Warlord (Collin Chou, Flash Point), who is keeping the King encased in stone. Along the way, Jason is aided by drunken boxing master Lu Yan (Chan) and the Silent Monk (Li again).
Screenwriter John Fusco (Hidalgo) delivers a better concept than full script. He indulges in a number of clichés from different genres, such as teen movies (the bullies who mock Jason for his kung fu interests), kung fu movies (his “master” is shot early on) and revenge movies (soldiers raze a village for no apparent reason, leaving one survivor to seek vengeance).
An even bigger problem with the script is the underwriting of lead character Jason. It may have been an intentional choice to keep Jason as a regular kid for the audience, and the wide-eyed Angarano does about as much as he can with the role. But this tactic makes Jason seem generic as a character and doesn’t allow the audience to really invest in him.
Director Rob Minkoff (The Haunted Mansion) does a competent, if uninspired, job. This isn’t Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-beautiful nor Hero-extravagant. If you replaced Minkoff with Brett Ratner (Rush Hour 3), you’d probably end up with the same film.
But enough with silly “story” stuff – what about the action all audience members will buy a ticket to see? The results are up and down.
When Chan and Li first fight each other, the film reaches a peak it can never scale again. As we watch the collision between Chan’s and Li’s different fighting styles, accented by Yuen Woo-Ping’s (Fearless) energetic choreography, it is truly thrilling. Wisely, the filmmakers extend the fight well past any length called for by the plot (which essentially sets the fight up as an irrelevant misunderstanding).
But even during this fight – the best one in the film – the initial buzz of seeing two legends throw down gradually wears off, and audience members are left to see that the choreography leaves much to be desired. Yuen may be a go-to martial arts choreographer, but he doesn’t let his stars do what they do best here.
Li excels at fighting with a high level of intensity, something Yuen should know, since he choreographed Li to ferocity in Unleashed. But Li’s Silent Monk character never really goes berserk (though to be fair, the more playful Monkey King’s moves are somewhat ingenious).
Chan’s fight scenes have always excelled at combining use-anything-as-a-weapon inventiveness and slapstick humor. And while a short restaurant fight allows for some of this, the film never presents it as much as other Chan films, such as Shanghai Noon.
A positive is both leads’ charisma remains intact. Li shows a rare playful side as the impish Monkey King, and Chan’s easy charm is as winning as ever. It’s also a pleasure to note that even at their advanced ages (Li is 44, Chan is 54) both men have plenty of kicks left.
However, the film does have some slight flaws, such as the very evident use of CGI throughout the film. Even some scenes in villages and streets look CGI-assisted, a completely unnecessary move.
Overall, the film struggles to keep interest whenever Li and Chan aren’t onscreen or someone isn’t fighting. The Forbidden Kingdom has enough going for it to deserve a look, though. Chan and Li acting and fighting together in a film will likely never happen again, and there’s enough fighting, jokes and plot to keep the running time from sagging too much.
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RATING: 3 STARS OUT OF 5
