Pete Salaz

I had high hopes which I'll admit, adds to my so so review. I was expecting a Wuxia-esque film. I love Wuxia films and I've seen hundreds. Again, my expectations set this one up for failure. I kept hearing about 200 million dollar budget and thus, couldn't wait to see what they did with it. So...where did it go? The effects were eh. The phoenix looked like a kite. The wire work was less believable than films with 80% less budget. Very little character development. I feel like the movie was 20 minutes or so too short. Maybe a flashback of Jet Li's character killing the bad guy's dad would add some juice to why he wants to kill the emperor so bad. Maybe a lil' more training for Wulan. Maybe more into the witch so we can feel bad when she <spoiler alert> dies for Mulan. Wait, is it a spoiler...I didn't see the cartoon. Anyhow...for a movie that boasts Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Liu Yifei, and a $200 Million budget...it left me feeling like I wanted so much more. The trailer for The Forbidden Kingdom has more power than Disney's Mulan. Forbidden Kingdom for those who don't know is a 2008 Disney type Wuxia movie that also has Liu Yifei and Jet Li, as well as Jackie Chan.