The Forbidden Kingdom

Kung fu purists may scoff, but escapists with a sense of humor should romp through The Forbidden Kingdom.

The Forbidden Kingdom may be nothing but disposable fun, but it is a great, heaping, overflowing helping of fun. If you're 10, it may also seem like Citizen Kane.

The action is slowed down for younger eyes, mostly bloodless and often played for laughs.

Yes, Chan and Li do fight each other, which is worth the price of admission alone.

Martial-arts superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li team up for the first time in a time-bending amusement-park ride of a movie.

Unfailingly lighthearted, the film's fight scenes are stylized, soaring wire work and gravity-defying digital sorcery rather than blood-and-bruises beatdowns.

It's as if the characters know they're in a movie that references lots of other movies and they want to share with us how much fun those movies can be.

The Forbidden Kingdom is ultimately a family film, despite all the fighting.

Kung-fu obsessed 12-year-olds of all ages are the target audience for Rob Minkoff and John Fusco's fantasy.

An American production with plenty of Chinese talent on both sides of the camera, it's both a Hollywood action fantasy and a tribute to classic Hong Kong martial arts adventures.

The way it waters down ingredients from Chinese folklore and the stars' own filmographies may offend some purists, but the lingering whiff of greatness makes this stir-fried fantasy surprisingly flavorful.

The sweeping martial-arts fantasy The Forbidden Kingdom probably will be a smash with 12-year-old boys everywhere. If you're outside that narrow demographic, you may be out of luck.

The Forbidden Kingdom is a solid effort that mostly lives up the legacy of the films from which it borrows, will likely satisfy fans of both Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

Bloodless, it fulfills basic youth fantasies and features lots of jumping around with no serious consequences.

The Forbidden Kingdom takes a predictable path that is entertaining only because of its two big stars.

Essentially, it's The Wizard of Oz with kung-fu instead of singing and dancing.

With a combined 133 movies and 72 years in the business between them, Hong Kong action superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li have put off appearing in a film together for far too long.

As much as Chan seems to be having fun, he's simply repeating one of his best roles, that of the title characters from Drunken Master movies.

Is this first pairing of marital arts masters Jackie Chan and Jet Li worth the long wait? Yes, but only when their fists of fury are flying. And, thankfully, that happens quite frequently.

Anyone who enjoys the work of Li or Chan or appreciates the exciting style of action choreographer Yuen Wo-Ping will want to see this film.

The action movie feels too formulaic to hold the interest of anyone who's not a die-hard fan of either of the movie's stars.

The martial arts fantasy Forbidden Kingdom is chop-socky bordering on chop-schlocky, but it's good-natured myth-making cut into kid-size pieces.

The Forbidden Kingdom is to Asian martial arts movies what Heat was to American crime thrillers. That is, it represents the first on-screen pairing of two 100-percent genuine screen icons.

The long-awaited pairing of the 44-year-old Li and the 54-year-old Chan is a fizzle (they only fight each other once, early in the film) that makes you wish they had met up in their prime.

Jet Li and Jackie Chan, the genre's two greatest living stars, finally face off onscreen. But it's essentially a kids' movie, and a cheesy one, even if it does look terrific.

The Forbidden Kingdom is smart enough to give Chan and Li plenty of scenes together -- including one scenery-destroying battle.

Jackie Chan and Jet Li together is probably all you need to know, but The Forbidden Kingdom actually has a few other attractions besides its historic first teaming of those legendary cinema martial artists.

It'll be tons of fun on DVD, when we can fast-forward to the good stuff and skip the plodding plot.

I think the "10 to 13s" are probably going to enjoy this flick. If it inspires them to seek out the genuine classics shamelessly referenced throughout Forbidden Kingdom, well, then, maybe this slight bit of fun was worthwhile.

The plot is negligible, but that's fine since it's really only a way to get from one set-piece to another.

Forbidden Kingdom is pleasantly enjoyable, largely thanks to the action choreography of the legendary Woo-Ping Yuen and the sense of spectacle delivered by director Rob Minkoff.

Director Rob Minkoff seems content to assume that martial arts fans aren't particularly concerned with distractions like plot or character development.

Pity the movie's such a silly, Hollywood-compromise version of this once-in-a-lifetime pairing.

At best, The Forbidden Kingdom counts as an amiable time-waster for kids, but much more should be expected from the momentous union of two kung-fu titans.

This mishmash of other, better films boasts thrilling fight sequences, but the bland story and characters aren't worthy of its international superstars.

Big, colorful and loud, the film is aimed squarely at devotees of the genre. All others need not apply.

Forbidden Kingdom marks Li and Chan's long-anticipated first onscreen pairing, which unfortunately comes late in their careers; both are talking retirement, and their best fighting years have clearly passed.

The Forbidden Kingdom, the first onscreen team-up between martial arts superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li, isn’t much more than a warmed-up stew of ideas from better movies.

A story that feels like a mix of Lord of the Rings and Chuck Norris’ Sidekicks.

Forbidden Kingdom seems made for teens or tweens keen on kung fu. Or for moviegoers who have been waiting for a single film starring both Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

The Forbidden Kingdom feels a bit too much like six hours of movie packed into 113 minutes -- imagine if New Line had made Peter Jackson cram the entirety of Lord of the Rings into one film.

Forbidden Kingdom serves up convoluted mythology with mild indifference, ostensibly because it recognizes that its sole objective is orchestrating marathon skirmishes featuring its stars.

With famed action director Woo-Ping Yuen working off-screen, there are moments of excitement in these sequences, but they're dulled by the film's half-baked appropriation of a world the filmmakers would rather ape than understand.

Little of it is exciting, none of it spectacular. Unless you count, of course, Chan and Li's pay-stubs.

Though The Forbidden Kingdom pilfers freely from Drunken Master, Iron Monkey and The Bride With White Hair, it all adds up to a forgettable variation on The Karate Kid due to its lacklustre action scenes.

It's a light and entertaining fantasy flick aimed more at kids raised on Power Rangers than those who loved watching grainy Shaw Brothers flicks on Sunday afternoons.

Both Chan and Li are saddled with lame jokes and few opportunities to properly display their kung fu mastery.

This kingdom really should be forbidden.