Forbidden Warrior

Chinese film is currently going through a well-deserved revival, the cinematography, character creation and plot are for the most part excellent. Hollywood saw this and this has to be their take on the Chinese film phenomenon, and their way of cashing in. And what a joke it is. You can't just take Chinese-American actors, steal parts lock, stock and barrel from Tolkien's work and hope for the best. Does Hollywood think us idiots? Or consider the movie-going public morons? They must do if they think people are going to stomach this rubbish.

Hollywood HAS to stop leeching other nations creative and brilliant works and try and call it their own. I've only seen one decent example of this type of plagiarism and it's a video game of all things, Jade Empire by a Canadian company called Bioware, their work is meant to be a reflection of esteem onto the creators of genre, not a asset strip. If you want to see real personalities created, marvel at the scenery, gasp at the battles and generally bask into all things eastern give it a look.

Anytime the urge rises to be entertained with an escapist film the top of the list becomes one of the Asian martial arts films, films of stunning beauty, breathtaking choreography, handsome actors, and enough legend to make the storyline fascinating, e.g. 'The House of Flying Daggers'. This pathetic film is packaged like those wonder movies and so deludes the public into thinking it is in an equal category. Not even close! A child is born to a couple informed that their progeny will be a male warrior who has the secrets to read the codebook that contains the key to the power of the universe. The pregnant mother is stabbed by the evil adversaries but the baby lives, 'disappointingly' a girl! The girl Seki is transported via a leaf boat to a blind wise magician who cares for her and teaches her Taiji and Kung Fu, raising her to return to the world and discover life along with her gifts. A family who wants to maintain dominion over China sends two sons (one evil and the other kind) to capture the girl and steal the code to the sacred book. The evil son is accompanied by warriors: the kind son is accompanied by Caucasian Marx brothers. The rest of the story is too simple-minded to discuss.

There are so many errors of judgment in the making of this film, not the least of which is a nebulous and silly script, that disrupt what might have been an honest attempt for Hollywood to make a martial arts film. But the acting is poor, combining Asian actors with non-Asian actors makes both look ridiculous, the special effects are clumsy, and the mood of ancient China is completely destroyed by the computer generated graphics superimposed on the real location of Griffith Park in Los Angeles! The three stooges added to the good warrior's team are so silly that they pass funny into absurd. There is no ending to the movie: instead it feels like the producers just ran out of money. A must miss.

At the start of the movie, it seemed to be a rather entertaining story, full of martial arts and magic--two things I'm very fond of in movies. I was expecting this to be SO much more. I was just getting into the movie and it ENDED. I was like "WTF!?!?!?!?" Seriously, this movie was the most disappointing thing I've ever watched. I could have personally done a better job with the storyline than this pathetic director, script writer, and/or whomever is responsible. This movie had tremendous potential to be a great movie, but it was ruined by it's sudden ending that leaves SO much to be unknown.

SUGGESTION TO THE DIRECTOR/PRODUCER IF (S)HE EVER READS THIS: They either need to default and just remake the whole movie and continue the storyline or make a Forbidden Warrior 2 with these actors, provided they're still alive and look relatively similar--maybe they can just say that Seki has been in training for 4 years. Come on people! Let's not let a perfectly good story go to waste!

While many people probably expected this movie to be some kind of great martial arts / sword fighting flick; it only delivers on a juvenile level. The fighting contains very little blood, and that which it does have isn't like what you would see even in a PG-13 movie today, but I can't say it was bad fighting, not can I say it was great fighting.

This movie because of the way it was shot reminded me of watching a very long episode of a Hercules style television show. So I'm not sure if this was originally intended for the television or the big screen.

I think the story makes a lot of assumptions about what the watcher knows. They don't explain much about the geography used. Characters have little to know background given. The characters in some respects I believe are so proto-typical that they probably didn't feel the need to tell much about them since their appearance could tell you quite a bit. While I like this about the movie, and it makes it very easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys, in many ways its what I don't like about the movie too. I like characters, well, to have some more character and depth to them! I don't think anyone who watches this will be left going, ugh what a terrible movie, if they have the right mindset. But if you're looking for a serious martial arts / Asian flavored movie then this isn't the film for you.

this movie is the worst excuse for Chinese mafia to laundry money.. just joking, but seriously, the production reminds me the medium quality of some porn movies. the battles seems are alright nothing fancy but still not the worst ever existed but the slow scenes are so pathetic..and the acting so bad.. i mean seriously was it a Excellent parody made to even make fun of the audience? or is it just a serious action movie that has nothing to offer, in my opinion better watch couple of Arnold movies,you know which ones i mean..the really cheap ones..that have couple of jokes pathetic but still alright for a few desperate laughs.

No really point to see the movie..

P.S.

The cameras remind me of 1970 cheap filming.