The Forbidden Kingdom

The recently released kung fu movie known as The Forbidden Kingdom has many famous actors and actresses starring in the movie. The cast include people such as Jackie Chan (Rush Hour), Jet Li (Fearless), Liu Yi Fei (Return of the Condor Heroes), Li Bing Bing (The Knot), and Michael Angarano (Lord of Dogtown).

The movie is about a boy by the name of Jason (Michael Angarano). Jason loves kung fu movies, and has all kinds of kung fu posters and stuff posted on the wall in his room. One day, after buying some pirated DVD's from a pawn shop in Chinatown, he gets ambushed by a bully and his cronies who recognized him. The bully's name is Lupo. They force him to take them to the shop so they can rob it. However, during the robbery, the shop owner hits one of the cronies with a staff in his shop and gets shot by Lupo for doing that. While the shop owner lies there, Jason runs to his side and is told to return the staff to its rightful owner. He runs to the top of the building, and while up there, is dragged over the edge by the staff. He wakes up to find himself in ancient China.

Shortly after awakening, the village Jason finds him in is attacked by Jade Warriors, but Jason is saved with the help of Lu (Jackie Chan) and they escape. Later in the day, they are caught once again when Jason tries to pay a restaurant owner using American cash. However, they are saved from death by Golden Sparrow (Liu Yi Fei), and all three team up to return the staff to the monkey king (Jet Li). During their journeys, they meet a monk (Jet Li) who first steals the staff from them, then joins their side. They also meet a white-haired witch (Li Bing Bing); an assassin sent out after them to obtain the staff for the Jade Warlord (Collin Chou).

As their journey continues, Lu is mortally wounded by the white-haired witch. To obtain the elixir of life, Jason sneaks away from the others and offers to trade the staff to the Jade Warlord in return for the elixir. However, the elixir has already been promised to the witch, and so a battle to the death must take place to determine who gets it. Jason gets beat up pretty badly, and is about to be executed when Golden Sparrow and the monk show up in nick of time. During the ensuing battle, both the witch and the Jade Warlord are killed, along with countless other Jade Warriors. However, victory comes at a cost as both the monk and Golden Sparrow are killed. After everything, Jason is able to return to his time and awakens on the ground in an alleyway next to the building he was pulled off of. The bullies soon show up, but because of the kung fu Jason learned while in ancient China, he is able to defeat them and save the pawn shop owner's life.

I thought that this was an amazing movie! The storyline kept me into the movie the entire time; I was always wondering what would happen next, and was always surprised when it happened because it was always something I didn't expect. Also, the action in the movie was great! There wasn't too little, but there wasn't too much either. And the fights were always well planned and executed, and really spectacular. Finally, I just really enjoyed the movie overall. Good use of special effects and great incorporation of humor into some parts. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who gets a chance to watch it in the future.