Monkey King

So I just watched "The Forbidden Kingdom" with some of the more aromatic folks of Berkeley.

I've promised myself twice now that I wouldn't see movies in Berkeley. I really need to overcome this lying to myself habit.

Anyways, I liked the movie. The Jackie Chan/Jet Li combo was better than I expected and the fight sequences were most entertaining.

The main kid, a white boy from Boston, is quite forgettable. Just for once I'd like to see a movie where they have a "fish out of water" story, like a non-Asian in Asia or a non-Brit in British high society and not make that character into an utter dork.

I can get behind the character's fanboy behavior. I'm right there, but c'mon. Try not to treat the audience like complete idiots. If any of us were suddenly flung back in time, even as teenagers, we wouldn't be showering folks there with modern references that they wouldn't get. It would be idiotic in the extreme.

And the attempt at a romantic subplot between the main boy and the main girl was, at best, lacking anything resembling chemistry. "Forced" doesn't begin to cover it. Still, that wasn't what I was watching the movie for, so I was able to ignore it.

I would have liked to have seen more badass underlings throwing their weight around for the fights with the heroes, but overall I enjoyed the movie. It was good, clean fun. The ending was predictable, but that's fine too.

$7.50 well spent.

I would get the soundtrack, if it were out. Sigh.