The Forbidden Kingdom

So instead of a date night we made it family movie night. Which was a bit of a risk; we usually prescreen PG13 films before letting the boys watch them. Some PG13 like the Will Smith movie Legend I would have put more in the R category (lots of scary images, but I think it's the scene where he has to kill his own dog that would have bothered my eldest the most). Then there are films like this, which I would have called a PG. Bloodless kung fu violence, it's like a live action Avatar (coming soon...)

I went into it expecting some good fights but a lame story. I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it's about a white boy that gets a magic staff that takes him back in time so he can return it to the Monkey King. But they never go with any fish out of water jokes, or things are so weird in China I just don't know how to behave! jokes, which I appreciate.

Clearly Jet Li had some screenplay input. From DVD commentaries on his other films I've gotten a sense of how he thinks kung fu should be portrayed, and this movie had a very Jet Li feel to it. Jackie Chan and Jet Li both teach the boy from Boston kung fu (which takes so long he grows a ponytail; nice touch). Jackie Chan tells him how learning kung fu makes a musician a better musician, and a butcher a better butcher. Jet Li tells him kung fu is like water - it doesn't fight, it moves around its opponent and wears it down.

The girl with them has her own story line which was very good, and ended exactly as it should (I'm refraning from spoilers, can you tell?).

Plus the boys really liked it, which is always good. Jet Li plays both the stern monk and the Monkey King, who is a total giggling spaz. Fairly early on the Monkey King insults the Jade Warlord and the two fight, the Monkey King playing tricks and generally amusing himself throughout the kung fu match. Oliver leans over to me to whisper, "The Monkey King is so cool!"

I did miss a chunk in the middle of the movie when some chunk of lint got stuck under my contact lens and by the time I got to the restroom to get it out the lens was completely shredded. So I had to watch the rest of the movie like it was a Monet painting, and apparently I missed the funniest scene in the whole movie. The boys couldn't stop giggling long enough to give a coherent account of just what had happened out in the desert. Oh well, I'll see it when it comes out on DVD (about a dozen times...)