The Forbidden Kingdom

[synkr0nized]

I did a search, both with these sacs of fluid-filled, light-absorbing tissues called eyes and the forum search tool, and saw no thread for this movie. Apologies if I still managed to miss it.

I had a great time at this movie.
It had appropriate amounts of fights, silliness, and mythos.
A friend that I saw it with described it really well after it was over; he said, "It was like a clever blend of Pirates of the Caribbean, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and The Karate Kid."


I could see some folks perhaps feeling disappointed with the plot, maybe expecting a bit more than it gives, but I didn't see that as an issue. Maybe I let myself be suckered by the feel-good coming-of-age aspect.

I guess, long story short, go see it and have a good time.

[EVILNess]

It was a horrible movie unless you really like cheesy kung-fu flicks.

Fortunately, I love cheesy kung-fu flicks. So 10/10!

[Demetrius]

I saw it and loved it, I will be paying money fro the DVD when it comes out. That's right, paying for easily acquirable material because I can!

[Ogianres]

It was a kung-fu movie that starred Jackie Chan and Jet Li and had a campy B-movie plot. Important character and story development seemed rushed and disjointed, and the ending was a major cop-out. The acting by many of the characters were severely under-toned or overdone, and the main villian is completely "kill bad news-bearing messengers and burn down random villages" one-dimensional. Almost all of the fights featured "hey let's show you kung-fu masters beating up redshirts/stormtroopers" and the ultimate fight ended in deus-ex-machina-but-the-main-character-is-still-the-one-who-actually-did-it-by-him-self.

It was fucking awesome.

[Lord of Joshelplex]

Isnt Jet Li supposed to be retired?

[Demetrius]

...No.

He had said a couple years ago that Fearless (I think) would be his last full on Kung-Fu movie, but I guess even he is too much of a fanboy to resist a Jackie Chan, Jet Li movie.

[Savage Thinking]

Well, what he said was he was not going to make "martial arts epic" movies anymore (Which deal with more philosophical and religious issues), such as Fearless and Hero. But he'll continue making movies.

Not sure if these are spoilers or not so I'll just hide it anyway:
I thought Jackie's makeup as the old man was rather convincing. I didn't even know it was him until the end (Hence why I'm hiding this with the spoiler tags) where he's on the stretcher and says "Of course I'll live.. I'm immortal.." pretty much put the biggest smile on my face (As cheesy some may have seen it) and it was what made me enjoy the ending.

[synkr0nized]

I'm with you, Savage. I felt pretty stupid for not catching that earlier.

[Mauve Mage]

I felt stupid for not recognizing Jet Li as Monkey King before he "died" and transformed into the piece of hair. TOTALLY didn't see him through the makeup. -_-

As for the film itself, I liked the fight scenes, although the plot left a little to be desired in terms of development. BUT!!! I was really freakin' excited to learn that they were using the Monkey King in the story. Monkey comes from an actual Chinese tale called "Journey to the West," in which a normal monkey rises to the title of Buddhist Immortal. After crashing the Heavenly Emperor's peach banquet, stealing a magic staff from the palace of a river dragon, etc, the Heavenly Immortals transform him into a stone. The goddess of mercy, Guanyin, sends a young monk to revive him, after which point the Monkey King joins the monk on his quest to retrieve ancient Buddhist texts from India. Hilarity and adventure ensues.

But yeah, the movie was decent enough. I loved Jackie Chan's character, and the fight scenes were pretty good.


Good lord I'm a nerd.

[G.I.R.]

I saw this over the weekend and really enjoyed it. I have to give props to Jackie Chan for playing a very convicing old man! The action was fantastic, the story was alright, and I thought it had just the right touch of comedy. :D

and I've heard that Jackie Chan has stated that if the movie did well, he'd be down for a sequel. If they do, I hope Jet Li will star too!

[PyrosNine]

The greatest thing I think, was that the movie was full of references to both of their careers, especially since Jackie was a "drunken master" and Li was a very serious monk. The two's fight scene (the parts that weren't wireframe) was very well done, they both knew what they were doing.

Plus, it's always cool to see two Bruce Lee clones star next to each other.

The plot was expectedly weak, but it did keep with Journey to the West, with the main character's last name being Tripitaka-whatever, showing that he was the uselessly weak and ineffectual equivalent of the Monkey king's forced travel companion. Li's portrayal of the monkey king matched the famous old movies about the legendary Wukong, a clip of which is visible in the movie itself.

Also, I never noticed that any of the actors playing dual roles were the same until near the end of the movie. Which means I fail.

[Elminster_Amaur]

I loved Jackie Chan's entrance after the Cracker gets transported to China. It was awesome.

During his training of Milky, I noticed a few things off, as Jackie was supposedly a Southern stylist, such as the Golden Bridge/Horse Stance was incorrect, and his one-finger Zen practice under a waterfall was completely retarded. Although, considering that the second is a secret Art, it's not surprising at all.

As far as the plot goes, it's just like every other "modern" Journey to the West knock-off, where the plot was changed just enough to be not the same, but still add enough suck to the storyline for it to be a blockbuster. I mean, if you want good original storyline, a Wuxia flick is not something you go to see.

All in all, it was as good as I was expecting it, since I went in only hoping for Jackie/Jet fight scenes, and lots of relatively obscure Kung Fu references.

Plus, it's always cool to see two Bruce Lee clones star next to each other.What? Just because they're Chinese and do Kung Fu movies, they're Bruce Lee clones? That sounds almost as offensive to me as "all you Asians look alike" comments. As a result of this, I went back and removed the main character's name from my post and added slightly derrogatory (well, maybe not really) terms for white people in its place. XD I kid, of course. I'm almost 3/4ths white, too!

[Megaman FTW]

I swear I laughed too hard at this movie. Not at the characters or the jokes, but the rediculous fight scenes. Not sarcastically like 'oh, haha, THATS funny', but I truly sincerely laughed at every fight in that movie. Its freaking hilarious. Besides, as predictable and one dimensional as the plot may have been, nothing, and I mean nothing will ever be as bad as Jumpers.

[Lord of Joshelplex]

Its a martial arts movie. They generally tend to have shitty plots, Once Upon a Time in China being one of the few exceptions.

[Seil]

I went to see this in theaters, saw the first half hour, then the power went out. It looked pretty cool, though.

[BitVyper]

God, if this spawns an actual Journey to the West movie/series that doesn't suck (the last one had space aliens with laser guns in it) I will be pretty damn happy. As for this movie: The entire thing would have been better without the protagonist, but beyond that, it was spectacular. Pyros is right about him being faithful to Tripi though. Hell, Tripi was a bitch who whined constantly.

Also: The wolf chick was hot.

[lord kaboomis]

i think the Forbidden Kingdom was the best kung-foo movie with jackie Chan

[Death by Stabbing]

It was just an awesome movie all around...Sure the plot was iffy and whatever but most Kung-Fu movies have iffy plots...I mean Crouching Tiger's plot was just so outrageous it's not even funny because it went all the way around and came back to serious again.

Kingdom was great I was cracking up at all the right times and hey the white boy was from Boston so what's not to like? And the fight scenes were just breath taking. When Jackie Chan and Jet Li do their big fight...it was just magic...everything I hoped for and more. It was just great I don't want to spoil anything.

Additionally: The Sparrow was really hot

Also: Pyros...I wouldn't say that Chan and Li are Bruce clones...they have their own fighting styles and I'm pretty sure Bruce could beat both of them...well maybe...that would be a great movie too...