The Forbidden Kingdom

Rating: PG (Action-Violence)
Running time: 105 minutes
Opens: 18 April 2008, Now Showing

Some info:
1) Wiki Article
2) IMDB Profile
3) Official Site (English)

I must say that this movie must be one of the year’s most anticipated movies, maybe even one of the most anticipated movies of of modern times. I mean, it’s not easy, both budget and schedule wise, to get Jet Li and Jackie Chan to appear on-screen together. After all, it’s their first collaboration after each of them has been in the showbiz industry for so many years now.

But as with many highly anticipated shows, they tend to suffer the fate of over-hype or over-expectation or something like that. It seems to me that Forbidden Kingdom has also fallen victim too. Heh.

Indeed, Jet vs Jackie’s fight is probably the nicest sequence in the entire show, and it is very likely all, or at least most of their fight in that sequence was shot in 1 big continuous go, judging from the footprints left on the ground. Well, unless the crew and all bother to keep track of the footprints. Hic. Also, at some parts it seems to me that they actually slowed down their movements a bit, since it felt a little different from the general flow of moves and sparring. Haha. Well nonetheless you don’t really get to see such things often.

Apart from that highlight of the show, I think the rest of the show isn’t anything particularly exceptional. Not that it’s bad or anything, but it’s just pretty much ordinary bah. =P Ok la, some of the things to note is that Liu Yifei typically uses a 3rd person way of speaking until the very end before her “Sparrow” character is about to die. And then, Jet Li looks kinda funny trying to act as Monkey King. Hohum. Ermz, the 白发魔女 is actually quite good looking this time, rather than looking menacing or scary. Lol…

Oh, and I still find it a little weird that the movie is mostly spoken in English, with just a little bit of Chinese used. It just seems… out of place to me. Haha. Perhaps because I’d prefer the cast to speak Chinese instead (perhaps except for the white boy).

A bit over-hyped but still not a bad watch nonetheless. The highlight of the show is indeed the highlight. Heh. My take: 6.5/10. If there’s a 2nd movie that both Jackie and Jet will collaborate, I hope it’s in Chinese, and hopefully a better story? =D

p.s. I wonder why the white boy never realised the drunken immortal’s name is the same as the shop he frequents in Chinatown. Or at least there wasn’t any sign of him linking the two together… Ah wellz.