Starring: Jackie Chan, Jet Li Lianjie, Michael Angarano, Li Bingbing
Director: Rob Minkoff
Category: IIA (English/Cantonese and English/Putonghua versions)
The Forbidden Kingdom boasts some of the most arresting action choreography portrayed on film for quite a while - it had to, really, given that it's marketed solely on the strengths of its two stars, Jackie Chan and Jet Li Lianjie. The pair's initial dust-up has an intensity that rivals anything they have done in the past decade. So do some of the scenes that follow, as the duo do battle with the film's arch-villains, Collin Chou, on top form, and the less convincing Li Bingbing.
It's not for nothing that the film's Chinese title is King of Kung Fu. But beyond the gravity-defying stunts, all is not well in The Forbidden Kingdom. The fights are centre stage and pretty ceaseless - from the opening, with Jet Li fighting some baddies on a mountain, to the end, when the film's American protagonist, Jason (Michael Angarano), turns all Bruce Lee in a Boston alley - but everything else is an afterthought. And what's banished are things vital to an engaging film: the film is devoid of an original and coherent narrative, a proper raison d'etre for its characters and any overall logic (somehow the Chinese characters speak English in the original, and Jason speaks Cantonese in the Chinese version of the film).
The warning signs are there in the film's opening credits, which roll over a collage of cut-out figures from artwork and stills for past martial arts classics. The film bellows its intention to offer a pastiche with no context or cultural understanding. And from the outset, that's what we get: Jason, a modern-day American teenager, is reproached by pawn-shop owner Hop (a heavily made-up Chan) for being 'another white boy trying to know kung fu - kick arse, get the girls'.