"Forbidden Kingdom" seems made for teens or tweens keen on kung fu. Or for moviegoers who have been waiting for a single film starring both Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

True, Chan wears a ridiculous wig that looks like it was purchased in a Halloween store in a strip mall -- and which occasionally obscures his face during stunts -- but he is remarkably fit for a 54-year-old. He also provides the sporadic comic relief, which is welcome in this action adventure largely set and shot in China.

Chan and Li, who each juggle multiple roles, play mismatched mentors to a teen named Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano), magically transported from modern-day South Boston to ancient China.

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'The Forbidden Kingdom'

2 stars = Mediocre
Ratings explained

• Starring: Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Michael Angarano.
• Rating: PG-13 for sequences of martial-arts action and some violence.
• Web site: forbiddenkingdommovie.com

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Jason, whose bedroom is a shrine to martial-arts movies, is bullied and forced into a violent encounter at a pawn shop he frequents. When he grabs an ancient staff or golden fighting stick to defend himself and the store's kindly owner, he falls and wakes up in rural China.

There, he encounters a kung fu master Lu Yan (Chan), whose near-constant consumption of wine has little effect on his ability to kick, spar, spin, flip, fight, fly and execute any move from the martial-arts playbook.

He joins Jason in a small band of misfits, which soon includes the Silent Monk (Li) and the orphaned Golden Sparrow (Liu Yifei), who battle an evil warlord and try to free the Monkey King (also Li), who was essentially turned to stone.

The screenplay, based on a Chinese legend and written by John Fusco, who penned "Hidalgo," provides ample opportunity to showcase the emerald hills, bamboo forests, Gobi desert expanses, wonderful waterfalls and other real-life locations in China.

Jason has definitely gone over the rainbow and through a worm hole as he longs to go home, but not before finding some courage, learning some sick skills and trying to free the Monkey King.

"The Forbidden Kingdom," directed by Rob Minkoff ("The Haunted Mansion," "Stuart Little" and "The Lion King"), is beautifully shot and choreographed, but it's just not that emotionally engaging. At least for someone who never owned a Bruce Lee poster.

It seems to want to be more than a martial-arts movie, but it introduces so many characters, including the Jade Warlord and a white-haired demon who gives as good as she gets, that we barely get to know Jason. Son of a single mother, kung-fu lover and target of bullies and that's it.

He and the others play second fiddle to the moves, which are wicked but ultimately wearisome unlike the ones in the poetic, powerful "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." This is one "Kingdom" that's not so magical.