“The Forbidden Kingdom” wants to be a bridge between Hollywood and Hong Kong, a fantasy adventure that hands a teenage American kid a magic staff and drops him into ancient China alongside Jackie Chan and Jet Li. It mostly succeeds, but it succeeds in fits and starts. The movie is a mess of ambition and execution, a big-budget wuxia spectacle that leans on star power and stuntwork to carry a plot that strains under its own weight.
Trailer, via British Secret Agent 007.
The Setup
The premise is simple enough. Jason Tripitikas, played by Michael Angarano, is a martial arts fan who stumbles into a Chinatown pawn shop and grabs a golden staff that looks exactly like the one he saw in a dream. That dream is a vision of the Monkey King battling celestial soldiers in the clouds, and the staff turns out to be the Ruyi Jingu Bang, the legendary weapon of Sun Wukong. Jason flees with the staff, gets pulled off a rooftop by its power, and wakes up in an ancient Chinese village under attack.
He meets Lu Yan, played by Jackie Chan, a supposedly “immortal” scholar who remains alert and agile even when drunk. Lu tells Jason the story of the rivalry between the Monkey King and the Jade Warlord Erlang Shen. Erlang Shen tricked Sun Wukong into setting aside the magical staff, transforming its owner into a stone statue, but the Monkey King cast his staff far away before the transformation could complete. Lu ends the tale with a prophecy about a “Seeker” who will find the staff and free the Monkey King.
The setup is promising. It borrows heavily from the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, and the prophecy about the Seeker gives Jason a purpose beyond just running from soldiers. But the movie doesn’t spend much time developing that purpose. Jason is a blank slate, a modern teenager dropped into a fantasy world, and the film treats him more as a plot device than a character.
The Cast
Jackie Chan and Jet Li share the screen as Lu Yan and the Silent Monk, and both bring their usual physicality to the fight scenes. Chan plays Lu Yan as a traveling scholar who remains sharp even when tipsy, and Li plays the Silent Monk as a stoic warrior who joins Jason’s quest to free the Monkey King. The two actors have a history of working together in action films, and their chemistry here is solid.
Liu Yifei plays Golden Sparrow, a young woman whose family was murdered by the Warlord. She joins Jason and Lu on their journey to Five Elements Mountain. Li Bingbing plays the White-Haired Witch Ni Chang, who helps the Warlord retrieve the staff in exchange for the elixir of immortality. Collin Chou plays Erlang Shen the Jade Warlord, the main antagonist who sends his minions to seize the staff.
The action sequences are choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping, and they’re the film’s strongest element. The fights are fluid, acrobatic, and staged with a sense of scale that suits the fantasy setting. The film also includes a double role for Jackie Chan, who plays both Lu Yan and Old Hop, and a double role for Jet Li, who plays both Sun Wukong and the Silent Monk. The film is regarded as the first co-production helmed by an American director to make a primarily English-language wuxia genre film set in ancient China for a global audience.
“The battle for eternity is the fantasy of a lifetime.”
That tagline sums up the film’s aim: to make a fantasy adventure that feels timeless. The problem is that the fantasy elements are often treated as background dressing rather than central to the story.
The Quest
As Jason, Lu, Sparrow, and the Silent Monk travel to Five Elements Mountain, Lu and the Silent Monk teach Jason kung fu along the way. The journey is meant to build the bond between the three heroes and prepare Jason for the final showdown with the Jade Warlord. But the middle stretch drags. The film spends too much time showing the group moving from one location to another, with occasional skirmishes against the Warlord’s minions, without giving the audience a clear sense of stakes.
The prophecy about the Seeker is never fully explained. We learn that Jason is the Seeker, but we don’t learn why the staff can only be returned by him. The film gestures at the idea that Jason has a destiny tied to the Monkey King, but it never commits to exploring what that destiny means. The result is a quest that feels like a checklist of locations rather than a narrative arc.
The film’s biggest misstep is its treatment of Jason. Angarano is a capable actor, but he’s handed a role that requires more depth than the script provides. Jason is a fanboy who happens to find a magic staff, and the film never convincingly explains why he should be the one to free the Monkey King. The prophecy exists, but it’s never fleshed out. The film would have been stronger if it had spent more time establishing why Jason is the Seeker, rather than just having him stumble into the adventure.
What Works
The film’s strengths are easy to identify:
- The action sequences, choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping, are fluid and acrobatic.
- The chemistry between Jackie Chan and Jet Li is electric.
- The stuntwork is ambitious and well-executed.
- The production design creates a believable ancient China.
These elements carry the film through its weaker stretches. The action sequences are the reason to watch, even when the story falters.
What Doesn’t Work
The film’s weaknesses are just as clear:
- Jason is a blank slate who never fully earns his role as the Seeker.
- The middle section drags with too much filler.
- The tone keeps shifting between fantasy and gritty realism.
- The English-language dialogue is uneven and sometimes stiff.
These elements hold the film back from greatness. The film is a bridge between two cultures, but it’s a bridge that keeps swaying.
The Verdict
“The Forbidden Kingdom” is a flawed but entertaining film. It has a strong premise, a great cast, and some of the best action choreography in the genre. But it’s held back by a weak central character, a meandering middle section, and a tone that can’t decide whether it wants to be a fairy tale or a war movie. The film is a bridge between two cultures, but it’s a bridge that keeps swaying.
The film is rated 5.7/10.
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