Lord of the Staff
First of all, I’ve watched this movie called The Forbidden Kingdom, which I shall rename as Lord of the Staff. Just in case you’re wondering why, I did this because I noticed similarities between this movie and Lord Of The Rings. I really felt that I was watching a low-budget version of Lord Of The Rings, except that it has a re-cycled Drunken Master, a monkey king, a Karate Kid wannabe/rip-off who resembles Edward Norton, and a Chinese lady who looks like a participant in a Taiwanese talent show.
Anyway, the story for this movie is also very, very weak. Instead of Gandalf sending the ring to Frodo, Frodo (Karate Kid wannabe) gets an ancient staff from an old Jackie Chan. His mission: to free the Monkey King from Sauron (Jade Warlord a.k.a. The General of Terror).
The difference here is that instead of Frodo throwing the staff into the lava to destroy it, it’s the General’s task to throw the staff into the lava. Why not just push the damned Monkey King statue into the lava before they come over to wake him up first? The funny part is that there was a scene where Jet Li made his first appearance in the woods, stealing the staff from Karate Kid. At this point, he looked like Gandalf the White but with the mission of the Ring Wraiths to steal the staff/ring. Another funny part is when the Monkey King has been resurrected, and there’s this aura of power, which seems awfully similar to the part where Sauron got his fingers chopped off. Even the sound effect matches!
The Karate Kid a.k.a. Jason Tripitikas
Returning to his existing land, The Karate Kid shows his skill by bashing the gang leader who shot old Jackie. It was like watching Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, except that it was too predictable. Strangely, I thought The Karate Kid movie was so much better, even though the choreography in Lord of the Staff was more ‘refined’.
White Haired Maiden
There was this white haired maiden that has two skills:
One is the Indiana Jones/Catwoman Whip.
Secondly, it’s the White Haired whip. Therefore, her skills are mainly whipping people.
She looked like one of those villains from Power Rangers who are glad to be killed at any time.
The best scene in the movie (but still no big deal)
Arguably the best scene in the movie, the scene where people actually want to get their moneys’ worth, is the fight scene between Jet Li and Jackie Chan in da temple.
We have seen such choreography before; therefore it wasn’t a big deal. I would think that it would be cool if either Jackie or Jet Li played the bad guy. Then we could see a real good fight, maybe.
Sadly, both martial artists are equally popular, and definitely none of them would agree to play a baddie. The most sensitive issue when having two equally matched martial artist in the same movie is, of course, when neither party would want people to think that the other is better than him or vice-versa.
Two similar death scenes
White Haired Maiden and The General died by falling into something. White Haired bitch died falling 1,000 metres down a cliff, while The General died falling 10 metres down a lava pit (and perished like the T-1000 in Terminator 2!).
Show-off closing
The ending shows The Karate Kid being good in kung fu by shooting him practicing on a rooftop. But the problem is that he was easily beaten by nearly everyone in the movie (except for some henchmen and their gang leader.) Probably, they wanted to show that he is a real martial artist, but a small fry martial artist compared to Jackie Chan or Jet Li. Therefore, in the entire movie he was not allowed to be better than any of them!
It’s still better than Indiana Jones and the Brainless Skull and the average Van Damme movie. Therefore, I give it an Average rating. But it’s not a big deal. Fans should consider skipping this movie and sticking to the classics.
Directed by Rob Minkoff (The Haunted Mansion, Stuart Little 2) and written by John Fusco (Hidalgo, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron). Stars Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Michael Angarano, Liu Yifei, and Collin Chou. |
