'The Forbidden Kingdom' typifies what is wrong with Hollywood these days-disregard and disrespect of originality, truth, tradition and culture all for the sake of churning out cheap, intelligence-insulting, money-spinning over-commercialized films.
Those familiar to the story can easily tell that this movie is loosely based on the popular Chinese fairytale/myth/story 'Journey to the West', which is one of the most famous and most-beloved among Chinese literature. However, this movie made a mockery and insult of it by totally disregarding important elements of the story and blatantly adding other none-relevant Chinese elements making the whole movie an absolute farce. In short, it is akin to a messy collage made up of torn-up pages of several Chinese literature novels and films of old Chinese Kungfu flicks which is thrown into a mixture with a white Chinese Kungfu fanatic teenager's dream to be made into an awfully, horrendously tasting cocktail.
Yes, the movie maybe catered to Western audience who do not posses adequate knowledge regarding simple Chinese literature or culture but the way they made a mockery of it is simply nauseating and unacceptable to those with a slight understanding of it. But still, expect the movie to do well in this part of the world because of the producers brilliant plan to rope in 2 of the biggest Chinese stars to star in it for the first time in movie history - which sadly, makes the fact that this movie sucked even more appalling.
The cinematography comes across as very 'un-Chinese' even thought it is shot in China. One scene even look like they were straight out from a 'Lord of the Rings' movie. The plot, dialog and characters were poorly written, although there were a couple of funny moments here and there.
Overall, if you enjoy mindless 3-in-1(action+fantasy+comedy) movies, are a huge Jet Li or Jackie Chan movie who watches any of their movies no matter how bad they are, and/or have no clue regarding the basics of Chinese fairy tales, literature and films, by no means indulge yourself. However, if you really love old Chinese Kungfu flicks, have been reading Chinese novels throughout your teenage life, or are just looking for an intelligent, thought-provoking movie, stay away from it as far as possible.
Those familiar to the story can easily tell that this movie is loosely based on the popular Chinese fairytale/myth/story 'Journey to the West', which is one of the most famous and most-beloved among Chinese literature. However, this movie made a mockery and insult of it by totally disregarding important elements of the story and blatantly adding other none-relevant Chinese elements making the whole movie an absolute farce. In short, it is akin to a messy collage made up of torn-up pages of several Chinese literature novels and films of old Chinese Kungfu flicks which is thrown into a mixture with a white Chinese Kungfu fanatic teenager's dream to be made into an awfully, horrendously tasting cocktail.
Yes, the movie maybe catered to Western audience who do not posses adequate knowledge regarding simple Chinese literature or culture but the way they made a mockery of it is simply nauseating and unacceptable to those with a slight understanding of it. But still, expect the movie to do well in this part of the world because of the producers brilliant plan to rope in 2 of the biggest Chinese stars to star in it for the first time in movie history - which sadly, makes the fact that this movie sucked even more appalling.
The cinematography comes across as very 'un-Chinese' even thought it is shot in China. One scene even look like they were straight out from a 'Lord of the Rings' movie. The plot, dialog and characters were poorly written, although there were a couple of funny moments here and there.
Overall, if you enjoy mindless 3-in-1(action+fantasy+comedy) movies, are a huge Jet Li or Jackie Chan movie who watches any of their movies no matter how bad they are, and/or have no clue regarding the basics of Chinese fairy tales, literature and films, by no means indulge yourself. However, if you really love old Chinese Kungfu flicks, have been reading Chinese novels throughout your teenage life, or are just looking for an intelligent, thought-provoking movie, stay away from it as far as possible.