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Movie - 4.5
When I saw this film the first time, I thought it was okay. My preconceived notion of a white protagonist in an essentially all-Chinese cast got the best of my bias leading to me to believe it could've been better. The second time I saw it, I liked it a little more. The subtlety of the story and a few of the themes managed to get a little more empathy out of me. The third time I saw it (as of this review) with all of the extra features and having just been severely disappointed by the big-screen adaptation of The Last Airbender, I now love it. The Forbidden Kingdom is a prime example of how to fuse Eastern atmospherics with Western storytelling, something not easily done in recent memory aside from a handful of titles like Crouching Tiger, Hero, and Huo Yuan Jia (aka Fearless). Granted those are all strictly Chinese productions spoken in Chinese (i.e. more authentic), but what I find so great about Forbidden Kingdom is the degree of detail taken in really capturing the mysticism, fantasy, and martial arts essence of classic Chinese cinema and turning it into an adventurous kind of fairytale that can appeal to both Eastern and Western audiences alike. With people like Peter Pau (Crouching Tiger's photographer), the great Yuen Woo-Ping (choreographer to a lot of great martial arts movies), and two of the biggest Chinese stars in Jackie Chan and Jet Li, it's a grade-A crew. But big props to director Rob Minkoff, producer Casey Silver, and writer Jon Fusco for putting it all together. Thematically, I think the story represents two very important things: the journey West (as in Eastern beliefs and ideals coming to Hollywood), and a little bit of hero/idol-worship (sort of an inverted take on the journey East, since the whole thing was filmed over there and with a Chinese crew). The result was, for me, a very enjoyable film with a little bit of everything (action, adventure, comedy, drama, fantasy). On the downside, the fact that 75% of the movie is in English tends to detract the Chinese actors' performances a little, but I don't think the subtlety would've worked as well without it. But for what it is, I still think it makes for a great kind of escapism compared to another particular movie.
Video - 4.5
As mentioned above, the photography for the movie was done by Oscar-winner Peter Pau of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. And with that said, the video quality of Forbidden Kingdom has a very vibrant and lush presentation. Colors are bold, putting audiences right in the middle of some very beautiful locations around China. As most people probably know from his highly-acclaimed work in Crouching Tiger, the presence of deep green bamboo forests are present yet again in this movie, providing a lot of the same visual nuance and elegance seen there. Image detail is also excellent showing a lot of the fine textures and facial features in the backgrounds, costumes, and actors. Black levels have a nice inky quality to them as well and help in balancing out a lot of the subtle colors in the set design. Contrast is fine, and overall image quality rarely falters throughout the film's run. There were a few times where the image appeared a little softer, though it's never a major distraction. All in all, a great job by the crew, and kudos to Lionsgate for the excellent transfer.
Audio - 5.0
While the picture quality is just short of perfect for me, the 7.1 DTS-HD track delivers on all aspects. High and low ends are reproduced perfectly. Every nuance in the sound effects ranging from forest noise to wind blowing to water dropping is flawless. Dialogue stays clear and understandable (despite some thick accents) through the center channel with no dropout or quality issues. Separation is by far the most crucial factor dividing all sorts of noise throughout the front, sides, and rears. Pay especially close attention during any of the big battle sequences either one-on-one or group-versus-group. No matter how many people there are or how big the stage is, every single voice, sound effect, and chord of music come through clear and sharp. But my favorite scene is the fight between Jackie and Jet. A good deal of LFEs will literally roar your room when Jackie starts fighting in Tiger stance. There are also many other instances within the movie when a lot of body hits make for a nice bassy oomph as well. Outstanding effort by the people at Lionsgate.
Extras - 4.0
For what little there is quantitatively, there's actually a surprising amount of depth in the extras. The most riveting of them is in the P-i-P commentary which takes most of the other behind-the-scenes stuff, dices them into the movie, and adds a little more length to their overall importance. Mind you, the standalone extras are still good in their own right and worth watching (all in HD, too), but fans of the movie should definitely give each of these a watch. Topics discussed cover a lot of ground ranging from production, logistics, shooting, general perspective on both Chinese filming and overall culture and how it's perceived in the West, the conditions in which the film came to be written and cast, and much more. I found all of them to be quite informative and hope that in seeing this movie, more audiences (myself included) will find something to explore and discover beyond just Hollywood.
Overall - 4.5
To this day, I consider The Forbidden Kingdom to be amongst my favorite martial arts fantasy epics. It does an excellent job of blending East and West and makes for a very fun adventure movie. It's something of an oddity in that I feel it's geared more towards the kung fu fanboy in all of us, but at the same time it somehow manages to stand on its own as a kind of fairytale story as well. With some of the top of the top in production crew and cast, the film is a wonderful experience in discovery and movie-watching and is presented with excellence in another great effort by Lionsgate. Highly recommended for martial arts and fantasy fans.
| Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
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November 17, 2008 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $6.42 | $5.11 |
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