The Forbidden Kingdom Review

Overall 3.91 of 5 view all 23 reviews

JanetLynn
Bellingham, WA

A fun, family-friendly film with a message of hope.

an eclectic movie viewer, watching with kids

Pros

The backgrounds, Fun, Good for all ages, Good fight scenes, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Two martial arts greats in one film, Funny

APR

2008

Forbidden Kingdom was fun to watch. It wasn't as intense as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and some of Jet LI's other movies, nor was it as funny as some of Jackie Chan's, but it was a good blend of the two, which makes sense as they were both in it. I felt that the character development was done more one dimensionally on purpose, to allow for the boy to be the most fully formed character in the story. The other characters were essentially mythical or imaginary characters so were never fully formed outside of the boys head. This didn't trouble any of us. My 17-year old daughter, 13-year old son, husband and myself all found it an entertaining event and will probably purchase it on DVD for future viewing. The message was important, in that it showed that only by standing up to the bullies could the boy actually be free of their domination. It kept the dream like quality even in the end, as Sparrow is revealed along with the Shop Keeper and the Monkey King in their dual rolls.