faylander
WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE GIVING IT BAD RATTINGS!!!!!!! it's the greatest thing since Indiana Jones and The Mummy! I am familiar with the Chinese legends and admit the movie doesn't get them exactly to the point yet they are WONDERFUL characters. The Monkey King was brilliant, pigsy works and sandy is cool. It's filled with adventure and believe me I loved it it is now my favorite movie. So definitely rent it guys!Okay so Confucias comes off as a snob, I don't completely agree with that but I think it shouldn't be such a big deal. I've read about Confucias and it does seem a little dishonorable but Idon't think it hurts Chinese culture.It has action, adventure, romance, great characters, so take my word for it it's awesome.
avt2
This mini-series is a humorous parable about the evolution of Chinese culture into the modern age. It uses the classic Chinese tale "Journey to the West" and shows its relevance in the modern age; the allegory here is that losing this book literally results in the loss of all the advances of modern civilization. It is retelling of the classic story, but in a Buddhist context of reliving the events in another cycle to make it relevant to the modern day. The story uses humor to make it accessible to the audience, and also to make the point that wrapping up tradition with too much seriousness causes some of the meaning and lesson of tradition to be lost. Some of the acting is pretty good, with Ric Young embracing contradiction portraying Confucius as a conniving villain and Ling Bai portraying Kuan Ying operating on many different levels. The Wizard-of-Oz ending was a little simplistic but it underlined how the story worked as allegory and parable. This is a light fluffy action story with a subtly complex political undertone, and an interesting interpretation of a classic tale.
JimWile
An excellent blending of the classical stories of the Monkey King and his friends with the modern world.Whenever a movie is made that attempts to blend classical stories with the modern world you have to give it the benefit of the doubt. The feel of the movie is much more important than the neatly pulling together points from the classical stories by Wu. The Lost Empire (Recently released on the Sci Fi channel as "The Monkey King". Does an excellent job of tying the intent and overall feel of the 4 books of the "Journey" saga into the modern world.For those who like to nit pick movies like this one, they should realize that there is not a classical Chinese movie made which holds up to scrutiny versus the original texts. Movies just are not supposed to be a replacement for reading. This movie does a very good job of giving the feel of the old movies a more than passing homage. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Fantasy and Classical Chinese stories.
michalis_j
This movie is an insult to the beautiful historical classic work from Wu Cheng'en. It brutally involves theme's that do not fit at all with the story line. Such as a Caucasian man falling in love the Goddess of Mercy and she falling in love with him. Even though, in order to make one movie out a of a 3 volume work, selecting only parts from the book is necessary. This movie has misunderstood the meaning of the book and used elements to make it a sad abstract of the novel. He has gone past the key element of the book: the enlightenment, the search for the Way from five totally different characters, each representing an element of human nature. The Tang priest, Sun Wukong the monkey, lazy and clumsy Pig, hideous Friar Sand and the Dragon sun, changed into a white horse. It has wiped out every Buddhist element from the story, while that's the backbone of this book. How he ridiculed key figures from Chinese history and culture (Quan Yin, Confucius) and not even in a adult and serious way.This movie does by no means represent the wonderful Chinese Classic `Journey to the West', or literally `Notes of a Journey to the West' and you may have already figured out that I was sadly disappointed with it.
AD
