The Forbidden Kingdom Poster

The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)

Action | Fantasy 
Rayting:   6.6/10 101.6K votes
Country: USA | China
Language: English | Mandarin
Release date: 28 August 2008

A discovery made by a kung fu obsessed American teen sends him on an adventure to China, where he joins up with a band of martial arts warriors in order to free the imprisoned Monkey King.

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User Reviews

ajracerkid2000 19 April 2008

I think this movie is a testament, that all blockbusters should strive for: having the perfect balance of action, drama, and comedy. From the awesomely choreographed fight sequences to the laugh-out-loud comedic moments, it truly has something for everyone.

Like someone else has said, there is nothing bad to say at all about this movie. It's one of those fun movies that my family and I like to call "DVD Purchase-worthy," not in the sense of skipping the theater and just waiting for it to come on DVD to watch, but rather an awesome movie we watch in the theater that we'd want to see again and again.

Jackie Chan's continued natural ability for humor and Jet Li's soft-spoken attitude, compliment each other well, like Ying-Yang, culminating in their first on-screen appearance together, that does not disappoint! And Michael Angarano continues to have a knack for picking fun movies to be a part of (first he gets to fly in Sky High and now he gets to learn Kung Fu..how awesome is that!?!) and I see the dude becoming one great up and coming actor!

AWESOME movie! A Friday night well-spent!!

ccthemovieman-1 7 May 2009

Fmovies: Jackie Chan has to be one of the more likable actors of his generation, a man who can successfully combine martial arts brutality and humor.....and pull it off, each time. "The Forbidden Kingdom" is another example of his talents, geniality and flair for comedy in addition to the obvious martial arts skills he's shown us all these years.

To make long story very short, this is tale an American teen who finds an ornate bo-staff at a friend's shop in Chinatown and the kid's mission winds up to deliver this age-old weapon to its rightful owner across the world in China and in a different time period. Yeah, I know, the story is ludicrous, but who cares? It's an entertaining film with some great stunts and some good humor. We have young people, old people, amateur fighters and pros, pretty girls with pretty moms, exotic locales and a lot of seriousness mixed with goofiness and Chinese mythology.

This is a not a film for "hard core" martial-arts fans, nor is it an "intelligent" film but if you're looking for a fun two hours of total escapism without the story being too stupid to enjoy, this fits the bill. I mean, you get Chan and Jet Li, in the same movie for the first time, too - not bad!

reggie_tracey 20 April 2008

I have been a big fan of Jet Li/ Jackie Chan since I can remember. All I have to say is that they deserve better. A movie that consists of both these remarkable actors should be incredible and unforgettable, but, in my opinion, this movie can only be remembered probably because it's their first tandem. I don't know what the writers in this movie are thinking. They should have watched the old movies of these two and studied it. They should have written a story that will compliment both their strengths in the screen (not just their martial arts techniques), and the tone of the movie is well-off. Needless to say, if you want to see a feel-good, relatively entertaining then this movie is definitely your cup-of- tea.

divadrummer 24 April 2008

The Forbidden Kingdom fmovies. If you're not a 13 year-old boy, Forbidden Kingdom was not really made for you. I understand the appeal of Jet Li and Jackie Chan, together at last, and everyone's hopes for a harmonious combination like peanut butter and chocolate. I shared this hope, but was served something more like canned cheese with crackers. It's not that this combination is bad, just that their pairing is framed within a feeble, pointlessly enthusiastic action film.

Forbidden Kingdom follows the story of Jason (Michael Angarano), a die-hard kungfu fan and his concussion-induced journey back in time to a mythical China. Jason must return a golden staff to the Monkey King (Jet Li), who is imprisoned in stone under the evil gaze of the immortal Jade Warlord (Collin Chou). Jason meets a silent monk (Jet Li), drunken master Lu Yan (Jackie Chan), and musical assassin Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu) who all have a vested interest in the Monkey King or the demise of the Jade Warlord. They accompany Jason on his quest and give him the skills he needs to repel his foes.

The characters are interesting but completely shallow. We're introduced to them as stock. There's an assumed level of familiarity with martial arts movies, which they're directly inspired by, but little more is given than this stereotype. Lu Yan and the Silent Monk profess death threats, engage in playful antics, and display some unknown kinship, sometimes all within the same scene. We like Golden Sparrow because she's beautiful and she's the same age as our protagonist. Beyond an obvious romantic setup, a briefly uttered revenge quest, and a catfight, she's completely pointless. It's interesting that Li and Chan both play secondary characters in this movie, and in roles that are not their traditional typecast fare. Jackie Chan is terribly sympathetic, but by his own undeniable Jackie Chan charm, not on any strength of the movie.

My biggest problem with this movie lies in Jason's story. He's sent to mythical China with more stereotypes than skills, and through truly excessive use of montage, becomes a warrior who can help the Monkey King. I suspend disbelief for fantasy films, but the montages are as repetitive and annoying as the whiny Jason. Since we're so interested in Jet Li and Jackie Chan, why make them secondary characters and give the focus to a coming-of-age quest? My rhetorical question is answered for you in the first sentence of the review. But I think this also skirts the issue of trying to give equal screen time and top billing to the two biggest martial arts stars of our age.

As repugnant as the writing and editing may be, Forbidden Kingdom makes up for this in a good dose of fight scenes. This has some of the best story-to-action ratios of any martial arts movie, hearkening back to the heyday of kung fu, where the story is minimized to make room for more action. Nothing wrong with that! It's still entertaining as always to watch Chan and Li fight. There is one very long sparring sequence and while it's nothing terribly flashy, you do get a sense that the two are very well matched. Some of the editing is sketchy, relying heavily on reaction shots rather than allowing us to see maneuvers connect. Some of the fighting is extremely theatrical and extended, in true wushu style, and beautiful to see.

The visuals have that nearly animated quality, with emphasis on glow and gold, that we've seen so often in fantasy movies lately. Combined with the cutout characters, it gives the impression that

lbk99-geo 18 April 2008

The Forbidden Kingdom starts in a way that is similar to The Karate Kid, with Jason (Michael Angarano), the boy new to his local high school who loves kung fu movies, but is helpless to defend himself against the neighborhood bullies. These same bullies force him to help them into a pawn shop whose owner is shot but still passes on a mysterious staff to Jason. The staff turns out to be that of the legendary Monkey King and Jason is transported into ancient China where he journeys to use the staff to free the imprisoned Monkey King. In the end Jason must prove himself as he faces both fantastical and real life foes.

Once in China Jason acquires several companions; Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) a wine drinking kung fu master, Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu) a vengeance driven young women and later a monk (Jet Li) who protect him and later train him in the art of kung fu. Together they journey to Five Elements Mountain to attempt to free the Monkey King and end the reign of the evil Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) who sends innumerable troops to stop them.

This movie works on many levels, none too deep, but very satisfying none the less. First of all it is a great action movie with very well done kung fu action scenes involving Jackie Chan and Jet Li, two of the greatest kung fu movie stars in the past couple of decades. In the midst of all of this is a great deal of fairly well done comedy, sometimes not perfectly executed, but generally fun, especially during the kung fu training of Jason. Last but not least this is a classic coming of age story in which Jason journeys from being a boy who fantasizes of adventure to a young man who can fight and suffer for what is right.

This is a fantasy based movie, so expect some magical displays and references to immortal beings, but this is not too heavily done so the story is fairly easy to follow. Refreshingly the movie has relatively little in the way of moral ambiguity, with villains that are really evil and those who oppose them being flawed humans but still striving to that which is right.

In regards to the appropriateness of the movie for varied audiences, the violence in this PG-13 rated movie is never graphic, though possibly disturbing for young children. There is no sexual content with the exception of an implied impending assault by the Jade Warlord (we see nothing actually happening here). I saw the movie in a pre-screening with mostly college students whose applause and laughs made it clear they enjoyed it, but I am quite a bit past college and found it just as enjoyable.

One last comment, while virtually all of the dialogue between main characters is in English, there is a fair amount of Mandarin Chinese being spoken during the movie. In the few instances when knowing the content of this is important there are English subtitles and I did not find the un-translated portions to be an issue.

Overall this is a movie that is exciting, fun and generally very satisfying to watch.

feuerstein 20 April 2008

Jet Li + Jackie Chan = 1 Word... IMBA! I'm definitely a kung-fu movie fan, especially if it's starring Jackie Chan OR Jet Li, but this movie has them both in! The movie is all about the Chinese epic tale: "Journey to the West" About Sun Wu Kong, or better known as "Stone Monkey" it's one of my favorite Chinese stories.

It started out slow and it had me all confused when the main character was an American boy but it turns out that they had their own version of the tale. The boy strangely gets ported back inside the story where he meets the characters whose roles are played by Jet Li and Jackie Chan and they set out in a quest to return a staff owned by the stone monkey who was prophesied to end the tyranny of the Jade warlord, an evil general who is the villain in the movie.

The action scenes were really good, superb even. Jackie chan and Jet Li still had their kung-fu in them and it was fun and amusing to watch.

The Acting was good, especially by Jackie chan and Jet Li. (I liked Jet Li's role as stone monkey especially, because he really looked like a monkey) The storyline though, was quite predictable because, Jackie chan movies always end in happy endings. but as I always say: "What you say is just as important as how you say it." Same goes with a movie, though the storyline is predictable, how the story went and how it was flavored with humor and drama and action made the movie much, much better and so worthwhile and entertaining to watch.

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