What happens when two of today’s greatest cinematic martial artists come together to work on an American-made movie based on one of the most well known Chinese legends? Potentially the worst letdown of the year occurs. “The Forbidden Kingdom” stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li and could be more appropriately named “A Kid in the Monkey King’s Court.” The film merges the ancient Chinese tale of the Monkey King with a poorly written script reminiscent of past B-grade children’s adventure films. In the tradition of “A Kid in King Arthur’s Court,” Jason (Michael Angarano), is a misfit wannabe hero who is obsessed with kung-fu films. He is mysteriously transported by a magical staff to ancient China where he learns of the Monkey King, who is being held prisoner by the evil Jade Warlord. The only way to free him is to fulfill the prophecy and return the magic staff to the Monkey King. Along his journey, he meets the wandering drunken poet Lu Yan (Chan), a silent monk (Li) and an orphan girl bent on taking the life of the Jade Warlord in order to avenge her parents’ death. With great difficulty the drunk and the monk, who are constantly at odds, team up and teach Jason to wield kung-fu. Huan-Chiu Ku, the same martial arts coordinator who worked on “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”, does the martial arts choreography. The fight scenes are masterfully executed and very entertaining. It is still apparent, as with many of the Hollywood films made by these two martial arts greats, that the they do not fully grasp comedic and emotional timing in English. Some of their dialogue comes off very strangely, but their martial arts prowess more than compensates. Both actors have still got it when it comes to fighting on screen, but sadly their skills are wasted on this script. The film could be rated PG, but due to the intense fighting and one very awkwardly chosen swear word, it has earned its PG-13 rating. The offending line occurs as an evil witch calls the orphan girl an “orphan bitch.” It is the only swear word in the film and sounds so awkward that it is more comical than anything else. Don’t le the PG-13 rating fool you; this film is very obviously concocted to entertain a younger audience. Unfortunately for the film, children will also be partially let down. The film fails to realize that kids do not need to be talked down to. Recent films such as “The Chronicles of Narnia” target younger audiences without dumbing down the themes. This film, however, does very little to develop the characters and has a mere cardboard cutout of a proper plotline. All too often, an amazing tale from another culture is seized by visionless American filmmakers and given a light-hearted spin and an inexplicably Caucasian “chosen one.” Why an American misfit is always the fulfillment to an ancient Asian prophecy I will never understand. “The Forbidden Kingdom” had all the elements of a potentially amazing film, but somewhere along the line it gets horribly.
Overall Rating: 1 out of 5 Boones
