The Forbidden Kingdom (Movie)
I find myself having to write a review because I'm so.... displeased. But let me start at the beginning. First off, I didn't go see it in theaters. I just wasn't going to spend money on 'Yet another White Boy is the protagonist in a fantasy setting, far less a kung fu fantasy setting'. And having Jackie Chan and Jet Li involved just made it worst that it was a white boy.
So I'm glad that now I've seen it there was mention of the fact in the dialogue that he was a white boy who was walking with his head in a kung fu cloud. But that wasn't enough. I can't be overly grateful for 10 seconds of mention when the whole damn plot is 'And now white boy will become an honorable man - MAGIC CHINESE, just as mysterious as MAGIC NEGRO but with special butt kicking action! Buy one today!'. It didn't have to be a white boy set up in those cliche, shortcut scenarios, but it was.
But the other thing was the shortcuts. I understand the purpose of shortcuts and yet the entire movie was nothing but shortcuts aka cliche scenarios that by their cliche nature give the audience cues that aren't explicitly stated in action or dialogue.
Examples:
- Sparrow set up like Aragorn/Strider with a hood and mysterious watching aka IMPORTANT CHARACTER, will save some bacon in a few scenes.
- Whacking bush on the journey equaling Wax On, Wax Off.
- It's a MONTAGE. We're talking 'bout a Mooontage (kung fu scnes) aka
- Close up shots of WB and the only girl on the crew (Sparrow) aka LOOK there's attraction. LOVE INTEREST. Twinkle. Twinkle.
Admittedly some of the shortcuts were kung fu movie in knowledge and thus moments of glee, but they also cut down on actual story telling. Yes the white haired witch is evil. Yes if you haven't clued in already then the Silent Monk (Jet Li) tinkling on The Drunkard (Jackie Chan) is a big old hint that he's related to the Monkey King.
But there was 'I don't know my father' shortcut to set up why Chan's character would be so important to WB. There were a couple 'you're not ready' to set up the WB rushing off to save folk, only to end up being rescued and having been a distraction to get the mission done. They even, to use TV Trope Talk 'Hung a Lampshade' on it all by having Chan's character actually give a speech about he'd rather die a mortal having let people into his life than die an immortal forever shutting people out. As if the prior scene of 'Boy who never knew his father' wasn't setting up a big 'I must save my master/ redeem myself for my master'.
Now maybe part of the reason they used so many short cuts was because of the language situation with the main actors (English is a second or third language). But I feel oddly cheated of the actual story. It felt like visual cue cards. I knew what chunks of the story I was supposed to accept as given, but I couldn't help being resentful that I didn't see it.
I didn't see the hero mature. I just heard the cue music and noted the camera framing. I didn't see a possibly one sided attraction or relationship develop I just saw a few scenes of crushing. I didn't see the master and pupil relationship develop, I just scenes set up that said that now I was supposed to care / accept that the relationship was deep.
Example - there were just as many shortcuts with Jet Li's character acting like one of WB's Teacher/Master's. So it was a surprise to me that he picked Jackie over Jet (the Drunkard over the Silent Monk). Never mind who the Silent Monk really is - there'd been enough cues for them both to be his senseis or seifus.
I think this bothers me because it made me realize how often I see short-cuts, in other movies, in tv shows, etc. It made me realize how much I've been appreciating well written books - or should I say, books that tell the actual story and don't rely on known cliches and stereotypes to do the work for it.