Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Because it is Disney, this is not in least bloody, but it is a good martial arts film. There is good action, and the cast is surprisingly strong. The story revolves around a young high school student who is valley girl. This character shows that Brenda Song can act beyond the suite life of Zack and Cody. There is a strong supporting cast. This valley girl is destined to become a kung fu warrior. Her guild is Chinese monk, who she transforms into an American teenager. Is the played by the same actor who played the warlords son in Tom Cruise's samurai movie. The story is all about find yourself and benefits of hard work. But all this is intermingled with really pretty good fight scenes. I hope there is another.

I am so insulted by this movie, it's not even funny... And I thought "Mulan" was unbelievable! However low my expectations of Disney have become, I never figured they'd do something so stereotypical yet so off. There is no respect here for any true Chinese culture, just the Hollywood tradition of random martial arts.I appreciate that they tried to make Wendy into a normal teenage girl... But, fortunately, most normal teenage girls--particularly Asian teenage girls--are much less obsessed with such shallow aspects of life. And from a cultural stand point, it's almost impossible. Yes, there are girls who are wrapped up in popularity and fashion, but they're pretty rare. And even the ones who are are still fairly decent scholars. Another stereotype, maybe, but a fairly true one. Because that's how Chinese parents work. That's how Chinese values work. If they wanted to go for authenticity, they would've made Wendy an ironic girl with glasses and a love-hate relationship with her family.This just adds to my frustration with American movies. Asian culture isn't about meditation and vague, nature-oriented phrases that sound wise. We don't walk around smiling enigmatically all the time, and we don't all know some form of martial arts. We're a PEOPLE, and I'd appreciate it if someone would write an Asian part that doesn't portray us as some sad caricature.

From the moment Brenda Song walked into the junior high school set of "Stuck in the Suburbs" and flung her retro-1960's hairdo over her shoulder, people who never knew who she was prior to then would realize this is an actress that The Disney Channel could not afford to lose before she grows up. And though she already turned 18 before the release of this DCOM, they couldn't possibly deny that she was a star in the making as far back as "The Ultimate Christmas Present." When I first heard that this was going to be Brenda's first starring role, I thought it was going to be incredibly corny, cheesy and campy. I'm surprised to find I was wrong about the third part.Wendy Wu, is a pretty and popular contemporary Chinese-American California high school girl. She has two friends that envy her, a trophy boyfriend she's not entirely enthusiastic about, and while not the smartest kid in class, she's certainly not the spoiled airhead she plays on "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody." Neither she nor her parents, nor even her classmates make any issue of their cultural heritage, until two things happen; 1)Her mother, a museum curator starts getting newly received ancient Chinese statues, and 2)Wendy herself gets a visit from a Buddhist Monk who insists she's the reincarnation of an old female warrior destined to fight an evil spirit(What I'd like to know is how this temple survived more earthly evils like the Five Year Plan, "Great Leap Forward," Cultural Revolution, etc.). Naturally, she thinks the guy is nuts, but he slowly starts to convince her that he's telling the truth, and she agrees to accept training for the big fight that's to come.The tagline here is "Pretty. Tough." No truth-in-advertising laws were broken here. Her opponent Jessica Dawson(Ellen Woglom)isn't so bad looking herself. The TV-PG Rating was appropriate as well, not only for the standard contemporary martial arts choreography, but for the idea that Shin may have to die, a la Michael Biehn in "The Terminator"(1984). Essentially, Shin Koyamada is Wendy Wu's version of Kyle Reese. Part of the problem with the kung-fu fighting scenes is that like so many of them nowadays, the producers think they have to rip off "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon(2000)." Others detected elements of "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer(1992)," the "Dragonball"(1988) franchise, and numerous versions of the "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers"(1993). Although admittedly, I saw more Power Rangers elements in "Sky High(2005)," than I did here.Hardcore Martial Arts fans would probably dismiss this because it's a DCOM, and because of the cheesy plot, and far-fetched special effects, but I remember seeing plenty of martial arts movies from the 1970's with less of a plot, and people shooting lightning bolts out of their hands as well as other SFX that didn't exist in the 12th Century Far East. As of this writing, there don't seem to be any plans to put this movie on DVD, however the high ratings may change that. And though there are others who may like "High School Musical(2006)(TV)" better than this DCOM(including those who like this one), I feel the opposite way. All in all, it's not half bad.

I thought the movie (especially the plot) needs a lot of work. The elements of the movie remains westernized and untrue to the attempt of trying to produce an eastern feel in the movie. I'll give three out of many of the flaws of the movie:First, when Shen told Wendy that he would help her study the history of China, I was really happy that the audience would receive some information about Chinese history; but it turns out that the movie did not exactly show Wendy actually studying Chinese history; yet instead, the movie only shows Wendy practicing the method of remembering what she had studied, which frustrated and put me in dismay.Second, which really bothered me, is how the characters kept mentioning about moon cakes -- moon cakes this and moon cakes that and how good it tastes. Yet they didn't really mention the real significance of it. The only they they talked about that had any relevance to the moon cake was the Autumn Festival, which they did not explain or go in depth. They could have mentioned the myth that correlates with the moon cake -- the Moon Lady. The myth starts of with how there once exists ten suns and each would rotate rising, but one day all ten suns rose up, drying up the land with the rising intense heat; so the Divine Archer, Hou Yi, shot nine of the ten suns, leaving only one sun (there are different versions where the Hou Yi shot the eight out of nine suns). Because of his heroic contribution, he was given the pill of immortality so he could live on forever in case the ten suns do rise up again, but his wife, Chang-O stole it. After stealing it, she fled to the moon, where she met a hare. She then came upon an idea and told the hare to pound the pill into many piece so she could spread the pill all over earth, giving everyone immortality. (There are a few variations of this story but throughout my childhood, I, most of the time, heard about this version). I thought details such as this would make the plot more culturally Chinese oriented.The last thing I would point out is the last battle scene of the movie. The teachers that were possessed by the monks were fighting the Terra-cotta Warriors (the life-like statues of the soldiers) went against the idea of how important Chinese history is to the Chinese. The Terra-cotta Warrors serves as a connection of China's past and it was very westernized (where evil must be killed in anyway possible) that the monks in the movies were willing to destroy that connection. It would be understandable if Wendy, considering she is Chinese-American and doesn't have full Chinese knowledge, had no problem destroying these priceless artifacts.The whole movie was westernized because it seemed that all the monks and Shen want to do is fight... I mean, it's rated TVPG due to violence, which goes against the Confucius thinking of cooperation and harmony. It would seem more accurate that the monks try to avoid violence and try to work things out peacefully before having to resort to violence.All in all, all of or either of the producer, writer, or director did not do their research thoroughly and did a messy and effortless job instead. I would suggest that they either stop airing this movie or that they re-shoot the movie so it contains more accurate information; however, I would give it credit (2 stars) for removing one stereotype of Asians and Asian-Americans of being smart and quiet.