The Forbidden Kingdom
Rated PG-13 for sequences of martial arts action and some violence.
reviewed by Christopher Lyon
Jackie Chan and Jet Li and "The Karate Kid" (sort of) team up to save the Monkey King and reference dozens of famous martial arts movies in a little adventure playground of a film called "The Forbidden Kingdom."
The Story
Jason (Michael Angarano, "Sky High," "Lords of Dogtown") loves martial arts movies. He spends a lot of time hanging out at a little Chinese pawn shop in Boston with Old Hop (Jackie Chan), the old, blind man who runs the place.
When some bullies use Jason to break into Old Hop's shop, the old guy hits one with a special ornamental fighting staff. The thief shoots Old Hop. Dying, the blind man hands the staff to Jason and tells him to return it to its rightful owner. Soon, Jason finds himself waking up, staff in hand, in old China -- the old China you see in all those martial arts films.
Jason is aided by an always drunk beggar named Lu Yan (Chan again). The beggar, an expert martial arts fighter, tells Jason the story of the staff: 500 years ago, the immortal Monkey King (Jet Li) was turned to stone by the immortal (and evil) Jade Warlord. He must be freed to end the oppressive reign of the Jade army. But to free him, Jason will need to return the staff to the distant mountain fortress of the Jade Warlord.
Along the way, he will be helped by Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu), a girl intent on killing the Warlord for killing her family. He'll also meet the Silent Monk (Jet Li again), another martial arts expert whose mission in life is to find the staff and return it to the Monkey King. Together, the foursome will have to survive several attacks by a young, white-haried sorceress who serves the Warlord.
Jason will need to learn much powerful fu if he hopes to accomplish his mission and get back home to Boston. Cue the training montage...
The Verdict
What Works: The heart of the this film is the incredible fight sequences involving martial arts skill, some acrobatic wire work, and a little CGI. Great stuff, especially the long awaited one-on-one match between Jackie Chan and Jet Li in an old temple. Watching these two guys do their thing in a well-choreographed scene is enough to make you want to find some fu of your own.
The rest of the film had the potential to be really lame, but director Rob Minkoff and his team find just the right balance between letting things get too serious and letting them slide off into camp. We care enough about the characters, but not so much that we can't laugh at some of the outrageous stunts or goofy asides.
Michael Angarano is likable as Jason although...
What Doesn't Work:...it's tough to buy into his transformation from shlubby high schooler to martial arts master. The very end of the film where he squares off against the Boston bullies is straight out of "Karate Kid," almost to the point of being a little spoof.
In fact, the whole film is just a little bit cuddly. Chan and Li, both still amazingly talented, are getting wrinkly. Neither feels especially dangerous here, any more so than the anime-ready villains. "Forbidden Kingdom" also feels like more of a martial arts movie "performance" than an in-the-moment adventure. But it had a good time, and it invites us along for the mostly kid-friendly ride.
Content: The film's PG-13 rating comes with lots of flying feet, fists of fury, and pointy flying weapons. Very little blood spills, but a few characters die. Jesus' name is used for swearing once, along with a couple of other harsh words.
Worldview
[Warning: Small spoiler revealed below to deal with a big religious idea.]
As is the case with many Chinese-set martial arts films, "The Forbidden Kingdom" comes packed with open spirituality. For starters, it's all about battles between Chinese immortals. The Monkey King and the Jade Warlord are not gods in the same way as the mythical Greek immortals that would square off in the realm of humanity, but they are well-known legends/literary figures in Chinese history. Jet Li's Silent Monk is Buddhist, while Jackie Chan's beggar may or may not be a Taoist immortal himself. These two Eastern religions coexist in Chinese history and in the film. And their teachings mesh with the philosophy attached to so much martial arts training. However, most of the film's supernatural activity has more to do with a kind of magic -- Jason's time-traveling to fulfill an ancient prophesy, a potion that gives eternal life, and the god-like power to cast another in stone or break out of said stone 500 years later. More than anything, this collection of spiritual ideas feel like plot elements meant to echo all the martial arts films that have come before. You don't get the sense that we're be invited to make any of the ideas are own -- only to watch them go by. One loud Eastern teaching does come through, however. A main character, driven by revenge, is warned that her refusal to let go of her anger will cause her vengeance to backfire. It does so fatally. It is implied that she is then reincarnated as a small animal and, much later, as a human again. This idea of reincarnation is a big part of several Eastern religions. While the Bible agrees that holding on to anger and seeking revenge is always a bad choice (Ephesians 4:26-27, Romans 12:19), God's Word claims that humans die only once and then face God's judgement (Hebrews 9:27). Since none of us have lived without sin, we all deserve eternal hell. Those in Christ, however, receive His reward, instead, as a gift -- eternal life. No magic elixir required.Questions:
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