Richard's Thoughts on The Forbidden Kingdom

I have a lot of criticism on this movie not only because it was poorly made but also because it just does some things that are uncharacteristic of A) movies, B) kung fu fight scenes, C) Chinese movies, and D) children movies.

A) The Forbidden Kingdom's Fatal Mistakes As A Movie

One thing that really bothered me was a theme that the writers decided to shove into the movie. The theme of everyday life being an adventure is a theme that no movie should ever have. One goes to the movies so that they can forget about their everyday life but with a theme like this, The Forbidden Kingdom is shoving all its audience members back into reality. I do not appreciate this gesture. I thought the beginning was fairly decent all the way until Jason, the protagonist, gets mixed up with the hooligans. Then everything goes downhill. One more thing that really bothered me besides the theme was that Jason had no reason whatsoever to go back into his own world. The movie does not show a great relationship between Jason and his mother which might be the only thing that could convince Jason to go back. Not only that, his only apparent friend gets killed which would further Jason's reasons to stay in the Chinese wonderland.

B) The Forbidden Kingdom's Fatal Mistakes With Its Kung Fu Fight Scenes

This is particularly but not exclusively referring to the fight scene between Jet Li and Jackie Chan. I think an associate of mine makes a good point in saying that the fight scene was too long despite the fact that the two fighting were Jet Li and Jackie Chan. "It's all cool but, enough is enough." (Terrance Kimm, roughly paraphrased) Another thing done horribly wrong was the soundtrack for the fight scene. The music was definitely American and not Kung Fu music at all. When they were fighting, it didn't seem like they were fighting but just performing their choreographed moves because the music was just too much. It didn't match at all and at times, it even seemed like the music was too overwhelming and it was hard to concentrate on the fight.

C) The Forbidden Kingdom's Fatal Mistake as a Chinese movie


The Forbidden Kingdom, like The Last Samurai, had a protagonist of Caucasian decent. Freaking Ay.

D) The Forbidden Kingdom's Fatal Mistake as a children's film

A four letter word that starts with S and rhymes with hit.
A five letter word that starts with B and rhymes with itch.



I also have some praises for The Forbidden Kingdom:

Sparrow was not ugly
Sparrow did not kiss Jason
The Witch was not ugly
The Witch was kind of pretty
The Witch's real name is BingBing, seriously
Jackie Chan
Jet Li
The secret of Jet Li's character (Don't want to spoil it)
There are some really nice shots of Jason in mad pain