The Forbidden Kingdom Movie Review

At last, the Blockbuster summer movies has begun in the Philippines. To kick off the beginning of the lot is the movie starring 2 of Asia's biggest martial arts stars, Jacky Chan and Jet Li. If you've been living under a rock, then the movie is The Forbidden Kingdom.

The Synopsis is "An American teenager who is obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and kung-fu classics makes an extraordinary discovery in a Chinatown pawnshop: the legendary stick weapon of the Chinese sage and warrior, the Monkey King. With the lost relic in hand, the teenager unexpectedly finds himself traveling back to ancient China to join a crew of warriors from martial arts lore on a dangerous quest to free the imprisoned Monkey King." (taken from IMDB)

If your into the martial arts scene, the story of the monkey king has been a favorite legend in the Asian cinema spawning countless movies, shows and even cartoon/anime Series. I cant say that the idea for the film isn't really original, altho I'm hard pressed to think of the title that is similar to this one, i am fairly certain that the plot of an unsuspecting foreigner being thrown into a situation where he must save the world, has been used before. Setting that aside, sometimes it isn't the originality of the plot line of a movie that is important (altho it is very welcome), it is how the story is presented that makes a big difference. You can have the most original story and plot, but if presented in a bad way makes it just a bad movie. the flip side is also true, you can have a common plot and story, but if presented wonderfully, it makes a great movie, The Forbidden Kingdom kinda hovers in the middle.

I was waiting for this movie for quite some time now, and was amped to find out it was showing and i was one of the first people in the cinema to watch it. Well i can say I'm a bit disappointed. I'm not really sure if i just had such high hopes for the film, or it was poorly made. All i can think about while watching the film was this could have been done better. It also felt like the story was rushed a bit and i had the feeling that the story was moving too fast like there were missing parts that were cut, basically the storyline didn't move smoothly.

On the good side, it isn't a bad movie, it was very entertaining, there were moments that i really enjoyed. I was hoping for more fighting scenes but it was adequate enough especially for those who just want to see Jet Li and Jacky Chan fight off. Not to kill any dreams, but you wont find out who's better, they kinda end in a draw. Over all, if you like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, or are a fan of either these stars, you should go see this film.

My Rating: I'll probably give this movie a 6.5 / 10
Replayability: 2 Times (This is my Rating, Basically how many time you can watch the movie one after another )