![]() It’s the kind of role Shia LaBeouf would’ve gotten 15 years ago, and Shelton is frequently just about as annoying. Jack is meant to be a shut-in who gets lost in his video games, but his BMX skills are on par with a professional stunt rider and when we see Jack with his shirt off, dude’s got abs. Somehow, an entire contingent of royal guards who have been trained since birth aren’t good enough to defend the kingdom: we need a modern-day millennial for that. Shelton, whom teen audiences might recognise from the Disney Channel sitcom Girl Meets World, play the designated white saviour. The Warrior’s Gate has nothing close to that. The Forbidden Kingdom boasted Jackie Chan and Jet Li going toe-to-toe on the big screen for the first time, in fights that were choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping. In that film, it was a martial arts movie geek rather than a gamer who was pulled through a portal into ancient China, but most of the story beats are the same. The similarities between The Warrior’s Gate and 2009’s The Forbidden Kingdom are inescapable. A meek teenager who is habitually bullied is suddenly thrust into the middle of a grand adventure where he must beat the bad guys and save the girl despite lacking skills and being unfamiliar with the world. It does, however, play the Mary Sue (or Marty Stu) trope painfully straight. Thankfully, The Warrior’s Gate doesn’t take itself too seriously at all, and several jokes land. There’s a BMX bike chase scene straight out of the 90s and our hero has a rotund, bespectacled best friend who says “bro” a lot. It also feels horribly dated, as if the filmmakers are scrambling about wondering “this is what kids these days like, isn’t it?” The production notes refer to The Warrior’s Gate as “an action-packed adventure film with martial arts derring-do, seen through the eyes of a Gen Z video gamer and set to a hip-hop breakdance beat.” Excuse us while we roll our eyes. ![]() It’s a bog-standard coming-of-age hero’s journey story, combined with fish out of water hijinks. The Warrior’s Gate comes off as an extremely tired enterprise. ![]() EuropaCorp’s head honcho Luc Besson produced the film and co-wrote the screenplay with long-time collaborator Robert Mark Kamen. The Warrior’s Gate is a co-production between France’s EuropaCorp and China’s Fundamental Films. Standing alongside Zhao and with the help of the wizard Wu (Ng), Jack must rescue Sulin from the clutches of the ruthless Barbarian king Arun the Cruel (Bautista). When Sulin is abducted by barbarians, Jack leaps into the chest after her, and is transported to ancient China. Zhao gives Jack the mission of protecting the princess. One night, the warrior Zhao (Chao) and Princess Sulin (Ni) emerge from the chest through a portal called ‘the Warrior’s Gate’ into Jack’s bedroom. Chang (Mah), who entrusts Jack with a priceless chest. Jack works part-time for antiques dealer Mr. His single mother Annie (Guillory) is struggling to make ends meet, and their house will soon be foreclosed on. Jack Bronson (Shelton) spends most of his time engrossed in an online game, taking on the persona of a fearsome warrior called the Black Knight. Think “The Princess Bride” meets “The Last Starfighter.Cast : Uriah Shelton, Mark Chao, Ni Ni, Dave Bautista, Henry Mah, Francis Ng, Sienna Guillory, Kara WaiĪn ancient Chinese kingdom is under threat, and only one person can save the land: an American teen gamer from the year 2015. “Enter the Warriors Gate” mashes up an old-fashioned, family-friendly fantasy quest - more concerned with magic and high-flying stunts than blood-and-guts - with the tale of an idle youngster who discovers how to put his years of playing adventure games to good use. Uriah Shelton stars as Jack, a high school geek who comes into the possession of a mysterious box, which turns out to be a portal to a fantastical version of medieval Asia where a barbarian warrior (Dave Bautista) has abducted a princess (Ni Ni), leaving Jack and the royal’s protector (Mark Chao) to track her down. Zombies”) and co-screenwriter Robert Kamen (who previously worked with Besson on his “Transporter” and “Taken” series), the French impresario tells a story that encompasses ancient Chinese sword-and-sorcery, teen romance, hip-hop and video games. Working with director Matthias Hoene (best known for the cult hit “Cockneys vs. Like a lot of Luc Besson productions, the international martial arts extravaganza “Enter the Warriors Gate” mostly just assembles multiple salable elements into a shiny package.
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