"The Forbidden Kingdom"

By: Matt Duncan
Coastal View News

At first glance, it might be hard to tell what is forbidden in the newly-released Jackie Chan/Jet Li action thriller, “The Forbidden Kingdom.” Is it an ancient Chinese realm? A mystical world of magic? As it turns out, ‘forbidden’ is referring to the prospects of a good script or good acting; to an original storyline or quality editing—all of which must have been forbidden long before Jackie Chan and Jet Li signed on to do this movie. Even if enamored with high-flying kung foo and acrobatic sword-fighting, “The Forbidden Kingdom” falls well short of what it was aspiring to accomplish: anything worthwhile.

Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) is a kung foo-crazed teenager from Boston whose secret obsession with old combat movies is satisfied by buying bootlegged movies at a shop owned by an old Chinese man. On his way home from the shop one day, Jason is confronted by a gang of teenage ruffians who criticize his taste in film. After some pushing and shoving, the gang forces Jason to take them to the old man’s shop so that they can rob him. Jason obliges, and in the uproar of theft, the shop owner is shot. As he crumbles to the ground, the shop owner, who does not seem to be peeved with Jason for letting burglars into his shop, hands the teenager an old staff from the back of his shop and cryptically instructs Jason to take the staff to its rightful owner. Jason then runs away while being chased by the murderous hooligans. When cornered, the staff does its magic and transports him to ancient China.

Jason understandably feels overmatched in a world run by a repressive and cruel dictatorship and vigilante kung foo masters. Luckily he finds Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) who is a drunken immortal—he can live forever so long as he consumes copious amounts of alcohol. Lu Yan informs Jason that he is carrying a mythical staff once owned by the Monkey King, a loveable rascal who cannot be defeated in battle. According to a prophecy, the Monkey King lost his staff when an evil warlord tricked him and turned him to stone, and now the Monkey King is waiting for the foretold person to bring it to him.

Although Jason manages to augment his warrior clan by adding a vengeful dart-thrower named Golden Sparrow (Yifei Liu) and a testy monk (Jet Li), he continues to sense his own inadequacy, and thus despairs. But with the help of his friends, Jason begins to learn kung foo and takes to is mission of returning the staff to the Monkey King. As the clan makes their way to the home of the warlord, many dangers beset them, and when they actually arrive to challenge the warlord, the odds against their survival seems insurmountable.

Everyone has a few movies that they remember loving as a child, but when they return to the movie as an adult, they realize just how cheesy it is. It most likely seems cheesy now because movies have become more sophisticated and what were once original stories have been redone so many times that they seem nothing short of hackneyed. “The Forbidden Kingdom” is this movie without the aid of 20 years of reverie to bolster its sentimental value. Whereas “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Hero” can boast beautiful choreography and cinematography, a genuine and coherent sense of eastern perspective, and quality acting, “The Last Kingdom” offers none of these. The fighting scenes would be entertaining if they were not encased in cheesy dialogue, hollowed-out eastern philosophy and one predictable plot twist after another. Indeed, a way to redeem this movie might be to see if you can find each and every line, each and every interaction, from another movie.

Although mixing east and west in this style is almost always a recipe for disaster and a sure-fire way to make both cultures seem less authentic, the particularly shoddy performance of Michael Angarano as Jason Tripitikas puts this movie beyond repair. A combination of his over-the-top facial contortions and his neat triangle of pubescent chest hair are enough to make you choke on your popcorn without him even saying a word. Yet, perhaps it would have still been better for the movie if he played a mute teenager from South Boston.