Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Together for the first time, Jet Li and Jackie Chan join forces to create the greatest epic of them all. As ancient Chinese warriors, they must train and mentor a 21st century kung-fu fanatic who's been summoned to fight a centuries-old battle and free the imprisoned Monkey King. If you're a fighting fan, the wait is over. The team is ready. The Kingdom has arrived.

Action pair ups have always been a big deal in Hollywood. Unfortunately you don’t see them that much in kung-fu movies though. I think this is a pair up that would have held more excitement about ten years ago. Let’s face it, both of these spectacular action heroes are getting up there in age and ability and while they still put on a great show, I think most martial arts fans were hoping for something like this awhile back. Aside from that this is a fun film but it is geared a bit more to the family audience. I was hoping for a slightly more serious tone along the lines of some of the more recent big budget kung-fu films like House of Flying Daggers. There is still a lot of fun here though and the action sequences are well done.

Lionsgate delivers a solid HD presentation with this one. Detail and definition are up there with the best titles and the image has a great sense of depth and dimension. Colors are vibrant and a bit on the oversaturated side and a lot of the photography of the film seems to be a throwback to the beautiful visuals of some more recent martial arts films like Hero. Some of the CG effects soften up the overall detail at times and a lot of it can look a bit gimmicky. If it wasn’t for the inconsistent level of detail I would probably give this one a 5 for video.

The 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix is also a great presentation with plenty of dynamics and subtle ambiance. The soundtrack has a great open sense of space and the sound design makes the most of the surround paradigm. Deep bass extension is good but not quite as aggressive as some other action films. Dialogue is clean and balanced nicely within the mix.

LOTS of extras on this release. You get a Bonus View picture-in-picture feature with a behind the scenes look at the production along with interviews. There are a ton of production features along with deleted scenes and bloopers plus standard feature commentaries and trailers. Lionsgate continues to support their MoLog feature for BD-Live which gives you the ability to add to the film for other people’s viewing. A digital copy is also included on a separate disc.

While not quite the action film I was hoping for, The Forbidden Kingdom is a great film for introducing a new generation of youngsters to the genre. Visually it is a strong film and Lionsgate has done a great job with the presentation.