Forbidden Warrior

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!

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.

I will not bore any readers with anything about the story of this film. Except that the story is more corny than ten tons of popcorn. Just do not waste your time watching this film. Everything about it is incredibly inept. The acting, the script, the costumes, the choreography, the CGI .... the list goes on and on. Films like Catwoman, Elektra and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen are all examples of bad films, however, they all look like masterpieces compared to this film. It has been claimed to be like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and that it is very good. You cannot get further from the truth. Why so many have given it 10 out of ten is beyond me. Please do not see this film or you'll regret it.

Seeing all the negative reviews I just have to write one that contradicts this. People seem to go into this movie with expectations of another Crouched Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This it is not, having trained in 5 different martial arts I could appreciate the fights in this movie a lot more than those in CT,HD though as there are no ridiculous fights in tree tops or moves so fast that they are impossible to pull off...

I love the movie Kung Pow and although that was an intended totally ridiculous movie this one did have some references to it, but it also had a lot of references to Star Wars with the very Obi-Wan like Master, an evil empire chasing the princess and the orchestral score.

Most of the scenes were cut a little short and the actors may never get any Oscars but at least it never felt like the movie was dragging along (LOTR - are we there yet?) and it had adventure, treason, romance, a master and an apprentice, decent not over the top fights, some kind of land pirates, magic, an ancient riddle, and a Chosen One...

I watched the movie with my 16, 18 and 22 year old kids and none of us got bored, at times we good a good laugh with the references to other movies and we enjoyed it, only the lack of a decent ending was a let down but kept us wanting to see the sequel...

It's not a pretentious movie and if you can look at it that way it's really a good one!

I am shocked to read how many other people dis-liked this movie, but perhaps that is only because all the people who enjoyed it weren't as driven to comment. This movie was great as a film for humor and action - as well as exactly the story telling you would expect. No this isn't a blockbuster film, and I wouldn't expect that out of a film I never heard of until I went to the rental store. Forbidden Warrior is a story about a strong woman and it includes the elements of fighting, magic, love, etc. If you aren't into fantasy story-telling, particularly styles like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (but remember Forbidden Warrior is written in English, not a 'foreign' film (if you happen to be American)). It is a bit campy or cheesy if you're looking at it seriously, but if you enjoy good-hearted characters, a strong woman story-line, fantasy and magic, and a movie made by people who seem to have had fun making it (having watched the behind-the-scenes). In conclusion, if you pick up the film to sit down and enjoy a bit of entertainment as a film is meant to be, you'll like it. If you are looking to critique and can't handle watching movies that haven't won an Oscar, then don't pick it up. This film is great for a certain category of audience, if you're not sure that's you, please take into consideration the other comments about this movie - as it is understandable if this isn't your 'cup-of-tea', but it is mine.