The Forbidden Kingdom

Times Watched: 1
Watched With: Mr Rider @ The Cathay (20/04)
Snacks: Potato Chips & Green Tea

anyone else been waiting for a Jet Li/Jackie Chan collab?

Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) is your regular american teenager who obsesses over Bruce Lee and old Shaw Bros kung-fu movies.
and one day at his regular haunt - a pawn shop run by Old Hop (Jackie Chan) - things somehow take a turn for the fantastic and our boy is thrown way back in a different realm.

here he runs in to drunken immortal Lu Yan (Jackie Chan), Golden Sparrow (Liu Yifei) and The Silent Monk (Jet Li) who make it apparent to him that he is the 'Seeker' who had been foretold in an ancient prophecy that he would one day come and free The Monkey King (Jet Li) from his stone prison at the hands of the ruthless Jade Warlord (Collin Chou).

and so sets forth the adventure to find himself and his inner self as he and his comrades make their way to the Five Elements Mountain to bring peace back to the land and bring about the return of The Monkey King and the exiled Jade Emperor while fighting against the Jade Army and dodging the attacks of bounty hunter Ni Chang (Li Bing Bing)

i know i know.
some of you are probably going "ooooohhhhhh... alah this movie sounds like it's going to suck balls big time lah. but you're still handsome adam!"
well thank you. but don't jump the gun. about the movie i mean.

normally we see Chinese movies made for Hollywood (like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) but it's nice for a change to see a Hollywood Chinese movie y'know?
that's right. this is an ENGLISH HOLLYWOOD movie.

and it may seem so too fantastic and too fantasy-based for you to like but keep in mind that it is loosely based on the epic Journey To The West and is pretty much a draw-back and tribute to the old school kung-fu movies y'know?

and i'll be honest.
i don't really like Jet Li. but it was really great to see the fight scenes between him and Jackie Chan. the fight sequences (choreographed by Woo-Ping Yuen no less) are solid and so is the cinematography and set design.

i know this may come as a surprise.
but i rather quite enjoyed this one.

Final Verdict: