There's an awkward note here, of course, and that's that we're up to our necks in white saviour territory. Unfortunately, he doesn't know anything about protecting people either, so it's not long before Su Lin is kidnapped and Jack has to travel to ancient China to save her from forced marriage and murder at the hands of barbarian warlord Arun the Cruel (Dave Bautista).
Naturally, Jack doesn't know anything about princesses (though he's remarkably willing to take other aspects of the situation in his stride) so he takes her to the mall, because if Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure taught us anything, it's that time-travelling princesses like running up large credit card bills. One day, Jack takes home an ancient basket gifted to him by his employer, and out of it pops a warrior (young Detective Dee himself Mark Chao), who promptly tells him that it's his job to look after beautiful princess Su Lin (Ni Ni). In other words, he's a familiar archetype (he even has a fat, geeky friend who loses it in the presence of girls) but Shelton is enthusiastic and personable enough to pull it off. That hero is Jack (Uriah Shelton), a sweet boy who loves video games, his single mum and his job helping a local Chinese man run a shop, but who struggles with homework, bullying and life on a low income. With this in mind, it's good to see The Warrior's Gate, a film unashamed of its inherent silliness, taking its young hero on a roller coaster ride through ancient China. Sometimes it's good to stop worrying about the details and let the imagination flow.
'This week Johnny discovers a tunnel into a world of dinosaurs under his garden hedge,' an approach that worked wonderfully in the Fifties, is no longer considered good enough - but the fact remains that there are a lot of young people who still enjoy that kind of thing. The genre has perhaps been eroded by an increasing sense that stories need to justify themselves. There's been a shortage of adventure films aimed at teenagers in recent years.
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