Rewatch Value 5.0 This movie is not meant to be a religious allegory or a faithful adaption of the book. Just try to open your horizons and think of this as an entertaining journey, because that’s the only way to appreciate this film. That alone deserves giving this film a go. The Monkey King took four long years of production to be finally brought to life this year. You’re looking for something impressive. You’re expecting a CGI level like in Hollywood film. You like Donnie because he does a cool job with the Monkey King’s character here. You like the classic novels of the Journey to the West because this is the closest adaptation. The musical note was pretty much forgettable, I don’t recall anything after finishing the film so yeah, and there you have it. I don’t necessarily consider it a bad thing even though I am the type of person who heavily concentrates on cinematography while watching films. There’s isn’t much scenery to talk about since CGI were the film’s heart and soul. Some characters felt all over the place but it wasn’t unforgivable. The remaining cast did a cool job including Peter Ho, Kelly Chen and few others. They were pretty much convincing and entertaining to watch. On his side were the marvelous Chow Yun Fat and the cool Aaaron Kwok in main roles. He did an amazing job with the character to make it feel very believable. Needless to say, I was proved wrong through this film. I love Donnie and I consider him one of the better HKC stars but I felt like Sun Wukong’s character doesn’t suit his acting style. Donnie was casted instead and I was a bit worried. When they first announced the film I was confident that Jet Li will get to play the Monkey king again since he did a wonderful job with it before but he didn’t get the role. I have a little confession to make I was actually reluctant about Donnie’s portrayal of the monkey king.
#THE MONKEY KING 2014 HD FULL#
The acting department was full of huge names in HKC cinema. I am still thankful that they followed Wu Cheng En's classic very closely or I would’ve went very harsh on this Monkey King adaptation. This is a fantasy so there weren’t any traditional plot elements to follow it was catching and involving at many phases just like other parts didn’t feel right, rushed or very slow. The plot wasn’t very smooth just like it wasn’t heavy either. For a normal viewer who’s not familiar with the Chinese/Hong Kong way of using CGI in their productions, it may cause a problem but as long as you’re willing to keep your mind open and accept unfamiliar styles then everything will be satisfactory after a while. Actually, I considered it a cool experience with that enormous amount of CGI and wires inserted everywhere. It’s true that the special effects were overdone with many misses here and there but having watched several Wuxia films with immense use of CGI in my cinema watching, this doesn’t bother me at all. Well, as long as you’re not here to watch “The Lord of the Ring” then it should be alright. I know, I know the CGI is what bothered many people about this film. The film was full of several eye-catching characters, events and costumes. This version is absolutely the closest and the most accurate one. The novel is in fact one of the fewest Chinese novels I read many years back when I was watching few other adaptations of it. At the end of the day, I came to like this Monkey King version.Īdapted from the mega huge Chinese novel “Journey to the West”, this film actually followed the original novel very closely. When I finally came around this, I decided to just jump into it without prior judgment. Rewatch Value 4.0 With all the opinions jumping right and left about this film, I had a hard time setting my expectations. Written by Robert Harris / Global Star Productions Edit Translation Along the way he acquires incredible powers. The first movie is the origins story - beginning with the birth of Sun Wukong and ending with his imprisonment for his crimes under the Five-Peaked Mountain. The Monkey King: Havoc In The Heavenly Palace will be released in the U.S. This first installment in a trilogy of live action 3-D movies is actually a prequel to The Journey To The West, the much told story of the Monkey King's adventures on the road to India. This much beloved story, is as much a part of Asian culture as The Iliad and The Odyssey or The Wizard of Oz are to the West. Thus, according to legend, Buddhism is brought to ancient China. After rebelling against heaven and being imprisoned under a mountain for 500 years, he later accompanies the monk Xuanzang on a journey to India. Sun Wukong, (The Monkey King) is a monkey born from a heavenly stone who acquires supernatural powers.