datalore_alpha First of all, let's get the main issue everyone talks about out of the way. Yes, there's a lot of CGI, but I feel they did pretty well with it. I don't think they could achieve the epic level they were aiming for without it, and I personally liked all the eye candy.This movie felt like an Asian Lord of the Rings on steroids, massive steroids, almost to the point where they should be illegal steroids. Where Lord of the Rings was a bit too slow for my taste, this story moved way too fast.Characters were dished out left and right so fast and with so little explanation that you're left wondering where they came from and what their reason really is for being there at all. Imagine the Avengers without the previous movies of each hero to help you learn about and understand them. In fact I'd love to see solo movies for some of the characters here like Jiang, Ne Zha, Erlang Shen...There's so much content that they have to work with here, but it was all thrust into one large movie that was frankly just too much, especially for us Westerners that don't have much knowledge of the backgrounds to these stories.Anyway, don't expect a deep story with deep characters. Just take it for what it is - a gorgeous, epic fantasy action adventure - and you'll enjoy it.

Michael Ervin As I have never read the original story, I will have to take others word for it being a poor, westernized adaptation. All I know is that I found this an enjoyable fairy tale. I did not compare it to any other movie. The CGI was pretty good, and the story kept moving. It was clearly meant to be funny in places, and the kid with the power evacuation and explosive farts was not my kind of humor, but then I do not enjoy most modern toilet humor in Western movies either. The action scenes were well done and exciting, and I always enjoy watching people with powers flying around, fighting, and beating the bad guys. The story was not over by the end of the movie, and there has to be a sequel. The big bad only arrives at the end of the movie, so we need to see the heroes regroup and take him out. They need to save their world. That was another surprise to me, when early on it became clear that this story did not take place on Earth. Three suns??!!! Flying air ships! Yes the movie looks crazy, but it was crazy fun. I just hope Angelababy's character Blue Butterfly comes back somehow.

nagavenkat-28806 I thought Chinese are getting better at making movies after watching the mermaid,dragon blade and journey to the west. The story is about an evil king with a beautiful empress who is a nine tail fox demon. Our heros must find a legendary sword and together defeat the villains.We have a villain general riding on black panther like he man, a hero who flies on weird rings, another hero with wings and more blah blah.Sooo much potential completely ruined. The movie is filled with cgi and action but no space for story or character development. They put too much in one movie.The scenes jump from one action scene to other without any connection. My head still hurts watching this mess.Even the action and visuals were very confusing and too fast. Just when an action scene ends another one starts without giving any room for the characters to interact.There was no proper introduction to the setting and any details about the life of character's.In the second half a little bit drama made me give this five stars. A disappointment from Jet li who tried to be gandalf in this movie. I couldn't stop laughing when they showed signs of a sequel at the end. Finally a great comment from a youtuber."It's all fun and games until a baby goes cgi".

moviexclusive Before attending the preview of this Chinese summer action fantasy blockbuster, this writer came across an online article about how the movie is being billed as a "Chinese X Men". Next, he watched the trailer and had a nagging feeling that he will have nothing good to say about this star studded production (if you are not the hugest fan of overdoses of special effects and computer generated creatures, then you are on this reviewer's side).True enough, the 110 minute movie throws scene after scene of pompous action sequences at its viewers. There is nothing particularly original about this production – it is really a messy mashup of things you have seen elsewhere.Based on the Ming Dynasty novel Fengshen Yanyi (Investiture of the Gods) by Xu Zhonglin, the story starts of with a tyrannical king (a bored looking Tony Leung, who had seen better days in movies like the recent Cold War 2), who is also bewitched by a beautiful empress (Fan Bingbing, who is the best part about this movie), who is in fact an ancient fox demon (watch out for her giant tentacles!). Just as the evil duo are about to kill off a good guy who is holding the secrets to destroy the ultimate baddie known as the Black Dragon, good guys in the form of a righteous young man (an earnest Jacky Heung who can't save the movie) and a powerful sorcerer (Jet Li, who can definitely do much better than this).Elsewhere, there is a villainous general who rides on a CG black panther (Louis Koo, who probably is happy from earning some easy bucks), a rebellious warrior who flies around on CG fire wheels (Wen Zhang, who took over the role from Cecilia Chung after she was fired for poor behaviour) and a righteous warrior who yields CG weapons (an underused Huang Xiaoming). Oh, there is also the love interest character (Angelababy, looking as pretty as ever with her big dreamy eyes) who looks really happy when she sees CG blue butterflies. The good guys are supposed to hunt down a mighty sword which is supposed to save the world (but of course).To be honest, the story does have quite a bit of potential to capitalise the characters' campy abilities and the demons' out of this world powers to produce an entertaining piece of work. Unfortunately, when you have HK$300 million to blow on a movie, budget is spent on trying to impress the masses with CG scenes (this columnist might have been more impressed if there were animatronics on display). Money was probably also spent on "foreign talents" like composer John Debney (The Jungle Book), animation director Randall William Cook (The Lord of the Rings), sound designer Brent Burge (The Hobbit) and editor Wayne Philip Wahrman (I Am Legend).The result? A mess that can hardly be salvaged. We just need to mention one scene for you to know what to expect – A CG Nezha invades an underwater palace and destroys CG sea monsters with CG fart. Yup, you read it right. We rest our case here - till the sequel comes along (yup, there will probably be one).