(groan)....Oh, man. You would think a movie with Jackie Chan and Jet Li teaming up for the first time should be the front and center of attention. After all, they are the two biggest icon in the martial arts genre. But NNOOOOOOOO!!!, we get some dorky white kid hogging up the screen time. Understandably, The Forbidden Kingdom is targeted for the family friendly audience and having a teenage lead will help draw them in. I still have my doubts. What do you think? Here is the official synopsis:
An American teenager who is obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and kung-fu classics makes an extraordinary discovery in a Chinatown pawnshop: the legendary stick weapon of the Chinese sage and warrior, the Monkey King. With the lost relic in hand, the teenager unexpectedly finds himself traveling back to ancient China to join a crew of warriors from martial arts lore on a dangerous quest to free the imprisoned Monkey King.
The release date is on April 18th.
The teaser that AICN put up that is also on you tube was edited much better, than this one and it uses the score from Hero for it.
Looks like a completely different movie.
there is no god.
Hardly any Jet and Jackie and the white guy kisses Liu Yifei! Something's wrong.
cmon wasn't THAT bad :P
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=hE7ny2bfXF0
A hundred times better.
What's worse...this or that white kid playing Goku.
I grew up with Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies, and this just breaks my heart. I can only hope that if this movie does well, it will lead to another Chan/Li collaboration in a proper HK movie.
Well, Jet Li did have input in the story. I think it's gonna be a lot better than this teaser makes it look.
If this is th only time that jet and jackie will meet each other on screen,then indeed it will be a sad thing as it is not easy bringing those two together.
If there was any justice the Weinsteins would get rights to distribute it and then subsequently make it disappear like they do to every good Asian movie that almost makes it to North America.
wow, they speak English in Ancient China!
Jackie and Jet already said this is going to be dull and forgetabble.
The only thing that should be FORBIDDEN is white people trying to make an Asian flavored film. And I'm white. For American box-office GOLD just finance the film and keep out of it. A friggin' white kid? I'm ashamed for everyone involved in the film.
Even if this didn't have potential, I'd still buy a ticket just to piss some of you hateful bastards off.
Asians have been ruining this story for decades on the screen, but when there's white people involved, it's EEEEEVVVVILLLLLL.
Seriously, it's a bad trailer. Most American trailers are bad. Maybe the movie will be bad, maybe it won't. But if you think there's some unforgivable flaw in there being a white kid in it at all for any reason, that's just sad and I have nothing more to say on the subject that wouldn't be inappropriate in the extreme in this context.
Both trailers look kind of lame, but I'll watch it for the fights and production value. I wouldn't really mind seeing that white kid around if he didn't look so darn annoying. I'm getting tired of the "goofy hero" main charcters.
As for it being a bit racist because white people made this movie and the lead is played by a white kid, not the 2 big Chinese stars: There seems to be more respect towards the Chinese culture in this production than say... My Name is Bruce. It could have been a lot worse and people know it. Balls of Fury, anyone? I don't really care that the movie's in English, if the material is not racist... although having the 2 huge stars playing second fiddle to some "dorky" kid, so that it'll be more easily digestable to the American audience does bring up questions. That would be like having a skinny white kid play the muscular, alien Japanese martial artist, Goku in the Dragonball movie. Oh, wait... right...
Still, a heck of a waste of talent. I'm sure no one disagrees with that.
My larger gripe is that American studio practices sort of taint true talent. JC has worked with Hung and Tong since his "introduction" to mainstream America, and these films are as weak as any he's done with American directors.
If a US studio would properly promote an Asian film they might find a very large audience.
I think people in general are overreacting to the white/American aspects of this movie. It's not like Asian movies will stop being made, or that Jackie and Jet won't make more movies after this one. This is a fantasy take-off of Journey to the West and it looks cool to me, at least the first trailer does. The production values and the gorgeous look and incredible talent in this movie was facilitated by the American involvement, so I take my hats off to the producers for finally getting Jackie and Jet together in a quality movie. I'm sure the kid is featured mostly in the beginning, and then it becomes more of an ensemble piece as it goes along. That's what it looks like to me anyway.