This is one picture that has three things going for it from start to finish: Jackie Chan, Jet Li and a ton of fun. The Forbidden Kingdom, of course, was the highly anticipated film that featured the martial arts legends in the same film at the same time. On that level, it does not disappoint. It’s only a let down in my view because there should have been more story-the film almost begs to be more epic on a grander scale and palette.

The highlights of the picture are easy to choose. Every now and then, there has to be a situation where mistaken identity or misunderstandings become the setup for a brawl between two characters which neither are evil. They then have a extended sparring session, where it winds up in either a stalemate, or during dialog in between kicks and throws true natures are revealed and they stop the fight. The Jackie Chan – Jet Li showdown is in line with this. While the circumstances behind the brawl are silly, nobody is expecting the film to be taken too seriously. The scene drags out as far as it can go, but the involvement of two supporting characters are lost in the background until the truce is called. One the good side it’s well choreographed and fun. It’s also close enough to where one can say it’s a showdown between Chan’s Drunken Master and Li’s Wong Fei Hung from Once Upon A time In China. That’s not too far of an interpetation, of which I’ll get to in a minute. However, the downside to this little spar? It seems to go on way too long. The scene eventually wears out a welcome, even if in and of itself it’s a hoot to witness.

The next memorable sequence, I suspect, is a humorous attempt to pay homage to the Shaw Brothers, where a student/pupil has to go through varied tests, tortures and humiliation in order to learn extra skill, discipline and humility. In this case it is Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano), who was transported from Boston, MA, USA to the mystical realm of ancient China, who wants to learn some quick pointers. He is then caught between two teaching methods of Lu Yan (Chan) and Silent Monk (Li), and their rivalry of training him. Forbidden Kindom certainly has a huge collection of nods to various Hong Kong action and martial art cult classics, as well as one character from Journey To The West to boot. Three of Kingdom’s actors play two roles. Jackie Chan is fine under makeup in the secondary part, but it is Jet Li’s second role as The Monkey King which is the bigger surprise. Li appears to be enjoying himself in both roles all throughout the film.

The story itself is simplistic and muddled, the villain of the picture, The Jade Warlord (Collin Chou) has so little screen time, he’s almost invisible. He appears here and there, but it is only when his army is giving him reports on finding the magical staff, and in the first and final battles. More impressive his his henchman-or rather, hench/witch-woman, Ni Chang (Li Bingbing), who has more snarls, growls and charisma. I truly feel after all is said and done, I would not have minded a little more of Chan or Li, Liu Yifel’s Golden Sparrow heroine/mild love interest for fish out of water Jason or even more scene chewing by the bad guys. It feels like a setup for an epic fantasy of wild and wonderful proportions. Director Rob Minkoff deserves some credit: they were on the right track.

********
The Forbidden Kingdom
Starring: Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Liu Yifei, Collin Chou, Li Bingbing and Michael Angarano.
Directed by: Rob Minkoff