scottknight-46618 This has what I like in a martial arts movie. MMA has smashed the fantasy realm of these movies, where the gritty stuff where little asian men can beat gun wielding gangsters are no longer viable. This is why this movie works, because it takes the main character out of our modern world and throws them into the world envisioned in The Journey to The West, Monkey-King and all.

adonis98-743-186503 A discovery made by a kung fu obsessed American teen sends him on an adventure to China, where he joins up with a band of martial arts warriors in order to free the imprisoned Monkey King. Having Jet Li and Jackie Chan in the same screen fighting each other and then becoming friends to fight evil is enough for me to give this film a straight 10 out of 10 sure it has a lot of magic and legends alongside fairy tails but it's a very enjoyable adventure and i was surprised by how both actors do multiple things for example we have an old Jackie Chan and a young Jackie chan playing the same character and then Jet Li plays The Monkey King and The Silent Monk also Michael Angarano did a pretty good job as well you won't be disappointed.

Adam Peters (58%) In 2012 "Man with the iron fists" hit cinema screens, and then really quickly afterwards it hit the inside of a DVD case where it has, from now until the end of time, been totally forgotten about. Most copies lie as abandoned trade-ins gathering dust inside bargain bins in second-hand shops covered in "reduced 25p" stickers. Forbidden kingdom on the other hand is a little different. This pays homage to old kung fu movies such as the Shaw brothers movies, Bruce Lee, and to a certain extent old Jackie Chan movies. But the writing here wasn't partly done by Eli Roth, so the plot makes at least some sort of sense and can be followed without ever wanting to stick a kabab skewer through your own hand to distract from the sheer awfulness. There are actual characters that have at least some substance, and it runs along at a fair old rate. The plot here is more or less a cross between "The never ending story" with action scenes very similar to those that take place in "Mortal Kombat" (more so the games than the so-so film), only much less violent. The action is maybe a bit too CGI heavy at times, but Jackie Chan and Jet Li do have a decent fight with each other, which is well worth a look for their many fans. This overall is a quality product, with good production values, and clearly a large budget backing it up every step. And even though it won't ever become a classic must-watch, it is still worth a look.

kluseba Just like the main character in this film, I am a big fan of martial arts cinema and have grown up with it. One of the genre's first milestones "Five Fingers Of Death" (1972), Bruce Lee's "Fist Of Fury" (1972), The Taiwanese "The Master And The Kid" (1978), the visually stunning "Shaolin Handlock" (1978), the brutal "The Master Strikes" (1980), the humorous "Mad Mission" (1984), the magical "A Chinese Ghost Story" (1987), the epic "Once Upon A Time In China" (1991), Jackie Chan's "Who Am I?" (1998) and recently the touching "Fearless" (2006) and the ambitious "Red Cliff" (2008) are the movies I would cite as my favourite ones of the genre.Many martial arts fans have been dreaming about a cinematic fight between Jackie Chan and Jet Li. This movie finally fulfils this dream. While their fight is entertaining in this film, I was expecting something more spectacular and I guess many fans think alike. What about the rest? Well, this movie is a strange mixture of a Hollywood teenie movie where a young guy who gets bullied by a gang that switches into a traditional Chinese adventure flick with many martial arts passages and a few elements of Chinese mythology where the young guy has to fulfil a prophecy in ancient China.I must admit that this mixture pretends to be original but it really didn't at all for me. A young white American who is wandering around in ancient China just feels weird. The fact that everybody seems to be able to speak English with him over there after a while is just as strange. What even disturbs me more are the numerous modern special effects in this movie that don't fit with the more traditional costumes, fights and landscapes. The mixture of an ancient and a contemporary world just doesn't fit in here. From that point of view, it's comparable to the failed experiment of the remake of "A Chinese Ghost Story" (2011). A movie where this mixture really works well is "The Neverending Story" (1984) but this movie here is not at all close to this kind of quality.There were a few more things I didn't like that much like the Monkey King that I just found plain stupid. On the other side, the villains incarnated by Li Bingbing and Collin Chou are much more addicting and pleased me a lot.Towards the middle of the movie, I was afraid that the film would turn into some sort of romantic story but it ultimately didn't. There is some romantic tension between two characters but it never goes further and would distract from the main story. I felt that this element was just addicting, charming and very well played. One feels that this relation is fresh and hesitating but mature and far beyond simple sexual tension. In addition to this element, the movie doesn't exaggerate towards the entertaining and gripping ending that I liked a lot. It's not as if the ending was a complete happy end or as if the young American teenager would beat up all Chinese warlords, soldiers and monks on his own. Jackie Chan, Jet Li and the charming Yifei Liu get almost as much screen time as Michael Angarano which makes this movie feel balanced enough.In the end, this movie is quite entertaining and worth a watch. It features some of the best actors of traditional Hongkong cinema like Jackie Chan and Jet Li that have become worldwide legends for a good reason. It also features some promising actors of China's younger generation like Li Bingbing or Yifei Liu. These two women don't only act very well, they are also incredibly beautiful and way more natural than the vast majority of young Hollywood actresses. The gripping ending was magical and filled with great fighting scenes as well. On the negative side, the mixture of genres doesn't really fit, the special effects are annoying and the story and acting sometimes lacks depth. If you feel for a modern fantasy movie with a few martial arts sequences and many famous actors, go for it. If you expect a breathtaking homage to old Hongkong cinema with a profound story, don't watch this because you will be disappointed.