Forbidden Kingdom, The
Jason is a huge fan of kung fu movies and he’s found a little shop in Chinatown where he can buy the most exclusive DVDs. One day he goes back to the shop and finds an ancient stick that looks awesome but the shop owner tells him he can’t have it as he’s waiting for the right person to come by to return it to its rightful owner. Little later Jason gets held up in Chinatown by a group of hoodlums who force him to go back to the shop so they can rob the old man who owns it. However, things go horribly wrong and when Jason picks up the stick he suddenly wakes up in Ancient China at the moment warriors attack a village with him in the middle of the fight.
Luckily Jason gets rescued by Lu Yan who tells him the stick he has belongs to the Monkey King who opposes the reign of the Jade Warlord but was captured and turned into a statue. Now Jason will have to go on a dangerous adventure to deliver the stick back to the Monkey King so that the reign of the Jade Warlord can finally end. But first he’ll have to learn Kung Fu though…
Sound and Vision:
The image quality of this Blu-ray disc is very good with plenty of detail, sharp images, good contrast and no compression errors that spoil the fun. Certain scenes look at bit too much edited though and at times you’re wondering whether you’re watching a movie or an animated piece.
The sound makes good use of the surround speakers as well as the subwoofer and there’s absolutely nothing to complain about from that part.
Extras:
- Kung Fu Superstar – The Story
Conclusion:
The Forbidden Kingdom unites two of the world’s most famous martial arts specialists, Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Unfortunately the story seems to be made for enfants or utter morons as the comedy is far to be found and the whole isn’t all too interesting either. What we remain with is a mediocre typical Asian martial arts movie that has a couple of combat scenes that seem to go on forever, some copying of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and dialogues that seem to go nowhere.
For a movie that has Jet Li and Jackie Chan one would expect more but unfortunately this is a missed chance instead of a certain hit. Not that the fans of either actor will mind that though.
5.0