Forbidden Kingdom: Review By Fallenlords

The Forbidden Kingdom is a good all round adventure/fantasy/action film. Probably most notable for the fact Jackie Chan and Jet Li star. If you don’t know who they are by now you must have lived on another planet for the last 40 years.

The story is pretty simple a young lad who is obsessed with Kung Fu comes across a Magical Staff belonging to the imprisoned Monkey King. The staff sends him back in time on a quest to deliver the staff to its rightful owner.

On his quest he meets Lu Yan/Old Hop (Jackie Chan), Golden Sparrow (Yiefei Liu) and the Silent Monk (Jet Li).

This unusual quartet find themselves on a roller coaster adventure. There are some amazing fight scenes, though it is a little ‘flying man’ type of action. In other words wire work is in effect. While I don’t mind that too much, I prefer to see realistic martial arts. There is plenty of that in some of the close combat scenes with Jackie Chan and Jet Li, so it should keep the martial arts enthusiasts happy.

This film reminds me a lot of ‘Monkey’ the TV series, which I think was shown in the early 80’s. In fact while Jason is getting out of bed in one scene this TV show is actually on his bedroom TV. Not sure whether this film is meant to be a homage to that type of thing or not. But its enjoyable and thats the main thing.

So of the humour is actually quite entertaining, I particularly liked the part when Jackie Chan was trying to summon rain, sorry you have to see the movie but it is funny.

Basically its a good martial arts romp, not as serious as some and its probably aimed more at youngsters. But there is enough to keep all age groups amused. I would say its definitely worth a watch.