Movie Reviews, Two Stars - Saturday, September 13, 2008 2:37 - 12 Comments

The Forbidden Kingdom (DVD)

To be completely honest with you, I wasn’t overly impressed with The Forbidden Kingdom. The film had the potential to be a modern classic with kung fu legends Jet Li and Jackie Chan casted for it, but with such a weak plot and lack of energy from its actors, it was a complete disappointment for me.

The biggest problem with this film was the lack of intensity during the action sequences. I completely understand that this was suppose to a lighthearted “fun” film, but even with all the humor and fun in old school kung fu flicks, the fight scenes were always amazing. I’m not sure how others felt about the highly anticipated Jet Li versus Jackie Chan duel, but it left me wanting more. The choreography for the fight was on point, but neither Li or Chan had the fierceness that I’ve seen from them before. It just wasn’t very tenacious.

How about the motor behind the movie? Its storyline. What a complete joke. I have watched a grip of kung fu flicks with bad storylines in my time, but there was always something that would save it from total disaster. In the case of the Forbidden Kingdom, neither the fights scenes or its big budget could salvage it.

Overall, this film was not what I had envisioned it to be. I guess after watching classics such as Enter the Dragon and The Five Deadly Venoms, it makes it very difficult to appreciate anything which doesn’t live up to them. If you a hardcore fan of Kung Fu, then I advise you skip this one altogether. It will make you cringe to see so much talent (Li and Chan) go to waste. To those not so hardcore, you might actually be enjoy this one. It seems that good ol’ Hollywood has struck again.

Continue…

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!