Reviews: Planet of the Ood & Forbidden Kingdom

Didn’t do much this weekend, but I did catch the new episode of Doctor Who, and also went to see The Forbidden Kingdom.

100% Non-Spoilery reviews:

Doctor Who: Planet of the Ood: As I called it earlier: “We spent money on these prosthetics, and we’re damn well going to use them.” A nice nod back to old-school Who — a sci-fi allegory episode. Favorite bit:

Doctor: “Not that different from your world.”
Donna: “Hang on — we don’t have slaves!”
Doctor: “Oh no? Who makes your clothes?”

Pure joy at the fanwank reference that the Ood come from the Ood-sphere, and it’s from the same planetary system as the Sense-sphere, home of the Sensorites (from the 1964 episode of the same name.).

Donna continues to be not-annoying. I am pleased by this.

The Forbidden Kingdom: I love wuxia. You all know this. When I saw the trailer for this film, featuring the first-ever pairing of Jet Li and Jackie Chan, I went nuts … and then I saw that they were shoving a western kid into the film. “Oh no,” sez I. “It’s gonna be Warriors of Virtue! Boy, was I wrong.

This movie is a love-letter to wuxia films. From the opening credits (animated from 1970s Shaw Brothers posters) to the constant homages and references to classic wuxia elements, it’s pretty much non-stop. Even more amazing, I found that I didn’t mind the whole “kid from our time shoved back into Journey To The West” thing — and believe me, I was expecting to hate that part.

I could go on and on about this — but I won’t. If you love the genre at all — GO SEE THIS. You won’t be disappointed.