The Forbidden Kingdom
(As previously mentioned here [including trailer])
Directed by the director of the Lion King and both Stuart Little movies and written by the writer of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, The Forbidden Kingdom is clichéd disneyfication of kung fu fantasy with head nods to the original Monkey tv series. The cast is high quality: Jackie Chan and Jet Li are good value and there are many quality fight scenes; Liu Yifei as the love interest does well with a dire role; Collin Chou (aka Seraph in the Matrix sequels) plays a solid sanitised Evil Sorceror/Warlord (but not a eunuch...); the American kid is pretty unobtrusive. The best character for my money was Bingbing Li as a white haired, man-hating (but in a Disneyfied way) whip wielding "witch". I see she has a pretty extensive filmography and her character also reminds me that I should track to The Bride with White Hair.
It was a pretty movie, as I expected, but not as artistically pretty as Hero or House of Flying Daggers or as fantastically pretty as Stormriders. It's essentially a non-culturally challenging kung fu movie for kids, as befits a PG rated Hollywood release, and judged by those standards, it's pretty good.
Directed by the director of the Lion King and both Stuart Little movies and written by the writer of Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, The Forbidden Kingdom is clichéd disneyfication of kung fu fantasy with head nods to the original Monkey tv series. The cast is high quality: Jackie Chan and Jet Li are good value and there are many quality fight scenes; Liu Yifei as the love interest does well with a dire role; Collin Chou (aka Seraph in the Matrix sequels) plays a solid sanitised Evil Sorceror/Warlord (but not a eunuch...); the American kid is pretty unobtrusive. The best character for my money was Bingbing Li as a white haired, man-hating (but in a Disneyfied way) whip wielding "witch". I see she has a pretty extensive filmography and her character also reminds me that I should track to The Bride with White Hair.
It was a pretty movie, as I expected, but not as artistically pretty as Hero or House of Flying Daggers or as fantastically pretty as Stormriders. It's essentially a non-culturally challenging kung fu movie for kids, as befits a PG rated Hollywood release, and judged by those standards, it's pretty good.