The Forbidden Kingdom

As a fan of the Monkey King stories as a child, "The Forbidden Kingdom" was a treat for me to see the Monkey King brought to live-action. I had no idea this was part of the story, but it was neat for me.

Overall, the film is a hero's journey brought on by a boy named Jason (Michael Angarano of "Sky High") who is given a stick weapon to return to its rightful owner under the stress of a dangerous situation where Jason is literally running for his life, and inexplicably finds himself back in ancient China, and is befriended by Lu (Jackie Chan), a monk (Jet Li), and Sparrow (Yifei Liu). They help Jason to return the stick to a legendary place to free the Monkey King, who has been imprisoned for 500 years.

There is plenty of kung-fu action, some sparring between Chan and Li, funny training scenes with Jason as he tries to master kung-fu teachings, and the film moves at a good pace, although characterization is sacrificed for such a brisk pace for the film, but it works for the film, not against it. Overall, I enjoyed it very much.

I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B.