Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
4/25/08
I've said it before:
stars are cool. They bring iconic weight to characters, allow us
to measure their range from role to role, and generally distract us in
material that needs the goose. Something else that's great about
them is that you can put two stars together, then stand back and watch
the sparks struck by their combined starpower. Action stars rarely
team up: it's a solitary genre, telling stories of lone wolves taking
on impossible odds and even sidekicks are usually little more than cannon
fodder. So I guess it's not all that surprising that it's taken this
long for the two biggest Asian martial arts stars of our era, Jackie Chan
and Jet Li, to finally make a movie together. If they were waiting
for the right vehicle, their patience has been rewarded by The Forbidden
Kingdom. It's a nifty kung fu fantasy pitched at teens but enjoyable
by anyone whose pulse quickens when I mention that yes, the two titans
take time out to fight before joining forces.
Teen Jason Tripitikas (Michael
Angarano) loves kung fu movies, so much that he makes frequent trips to
Chinatown to buy bootleg videos from Old Hop (Jackie Chan), whose shop
includes an ancient staff that's been waiting for years to be picked up
“by its' rightful owner”. Jason's headed home when he's ambushed
by some thugs who demand that he help them rob Old Hop's store. He
does so, but the job goes wrong and the old man is shot. Hop insists
that Jason take the staff and find that rightful owner. The goons
want to take him out as a witness, but before they can, the kid finds himself
transported back to ancient China, where he's immediately attacked by soldiers
loyal to The Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) and defended by drunken traveler
Lu Yan (Chan again). Who IS the rightful owner of that staff?
Seems it belongs to The Monkey King (Jet Li), an immortal warrior who engaged
the equally immortal Warlord in battle only to be tricked and encased in
stone. To get back home, Jason learns, he must bring the staff to
the frozen Monkey King, who will then be restored to life. To get
where they need to go, Jason and Lu Yan are joined by two other warriors:
Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu) seeks vengeance against the Jade Warlord, and
The Silent Monk (Li again). There's only one problem: to battle
their way across the countryside, past evildoers like the witch Ni Chang
(Bingbing Li), Jason will need formidable Kung Fu. Alas, “he has
no Kung Fu! None!” Good thing he's got a couple of excellent
teachers nearby.
Despite the historic star
pairing, my expectations for The Forbidden Kingdom were low because,
frankly, it sounds ridiculous, shoehorning an American lead into a very
loose adaptation of the ancient Chinese novel Journey to the West.
But it's the duty of every good screenwriter to MAKE whatever he's handed
work and John Fusco has done a sensational job of making all The Forbidden
Kingdom's elements not only co-exist but actually work together.
The wraparound story and Jason's journey really get to the heart of martial
arts as a lifestyle (as opposed to a really cool way of kicking ass):
the movie in general has a nice Buddhist vibe to it. Trying to incorporate
the very Eastern mythology at the heart of Journey to the West into
a movie pitched at American audiences isn't easy (remember the debacle
that was Dragon Wars), but the elaborate
tales of immortals and supernatural powers are presented with just the
right mix of sincerity and lightheartedness to not seem like they've been
translated from another language.
Fusco's script also finds
a near-perfect middle ground between the home turf of its' two iconic action
stars: we're in an ancient China based on a beloved work of Chinese
literature (Li territory) with an American co-star and over-the-top comic
antics (Chan's world). The “You attacked me at Hello” fight scene
between them is pretty cool and goes on longer than fans had any reason
to expect. All in all, Li and Chan spend a lot more time on-screen
together than I thought they would. There are those who will bemoan
that they're both older and a little less flexible than they used to be
(as Harrison Ford would say “Take a look in the mirror. So.
Are. You.”), but I didn't mind. The movie's also kind enough
to provide both actors with dual roles for reasons which prove distractingly
obvious in one case and cleverly surprising in the other. As in the
underrated Sky High, Angarano makes a great underdog hero.
Chou is perfectly hissable as the Warlord and Bingbing Li hams up a storm
as the evil witch with really dangerous hair.
As directed by Rob Minkoff,
the movie looks great: the Chinese locations photograph wonderfully
and the lairs and costumes of its' villains are well designed. The
wire work and special effects are fun, particularly in a well-staged climactic
rumble that flows nicely into the resolution of the wraparound story.
Most audiences won't seek out The Forbidden Kingdom for the story,
but it's more than good enough to make them glad they came. Jet Li
and Jackie Chan are pretty cool too, but then, you already knew that. |
