The Forbidden Kingdom Review

Directed by Rob Minkoff (The Lion King, Stuart Little) the plot-line for The Forbidden Kingdom is nothing new, it is indeed classic, and dare I say boring, East-meets-West fable that is reminiscent of another recent (stinker) movie Dragon Wars (2007).                  

My Viewpoint

The Forbidden Kingdom was written for and is targeted towards teenage boys who love Kung-Fu and dream the dream of being a master of the martial arts.  In that vein the movie is not as smart, nor as tightly woven as some movies that have come before it.  This is not adult fair, and The Forbidden Kingdom could easily have been a Saturday afternoon movie, like the ones I used to watch when I was growing up. 

That does not make the movie unwatchable, far from it, but it does put the film in perspective, and speaks to expectations.  Jackie Chan-a real martial artist-and Jet Li-another real martial arts-both did an outstanding job in their respective role.  The one fight scene between the two was spectacular in its scope, technique, special effects, entertainment value.  Who was good, who was evil, who should win the bo-stick; these conflicts were waging in my heart and mind as I watched this more than five minute fight.  Both men are very accomplished in their skill and it was great to see them finally together in the same film.

The lead female Asian characters are predictably beautiful and adept at the martial arts.  Nothing wrong with that, but neither character is well developed, but all of the characters in The Forbidden Kingdom suffer this malady.

And who did the editing for this movie?  Scenes did not flow together nice; the editing was choppy and as the movie played on and the edits were still choppy, I had to ask myself who was or was not doing the editing and why they didn't catch these glairing flaws.  The same holds true for the sound editing; hello!   

Conclusion

Thought not as smartly written or beautifully conceived as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Forbidden Kingdom is nonetheless an entertaining look into yet another Chinese legend.