I've been a long time fan of the Journey to the West stories and I particularly like the Monkey God character so it was no surprise that I had to go watch the latest iteration of the saga, The Monkey King (king probably because he was not god yet). This is the first part of a planned trilogy and judging from its success in China, I'd expect the second one to be in the making soon, if not already! Monkey King stars current martial arts actor Donnie Yen as the titular character while Chow Yun Fat and Aaron Kwok take on the role of Jade Emperor and Bull Demon (direct translation from the Cantonese name as I'm not sure how else to call him), respectively.
Monkey King was about how the Bull Demon would want to conquer the heavens where the Jade Emperor rules. After an initial fight which the Bull Demon lost but not without devastating the heavens, a Crystal Goddess (or something like that) sacrificed herself to magically rebuild the heavens with her crystal body.
The heavens became impregnable BUT one of the crystals that protect the heavens dropped into earth. The Monkey King soon formed within this crystal. I loved the short scene with the Monkey King inside - it was at its cutest. Anyway, because he was part of the crystal, he was the only one that is not a god that could enter the heavens...
Through deceit, the Bull Demon hatched a plan and tricked the Monkey King (whom by now was known as Sun Wukong) into breaking into the heavens and so chaos ensued...
Probably with too high expectations, I was disappointed by the CGI which looked dated and jerky. Being a movie about gods and demons, CGI should play a very important role. 1/5
No one really stood out in this movie but Donnie Yen did appear monkey-like quite often. 2/5
The plot was really nothing new. 2/5
Overall, I don't think this will end up in history as one of the better part of the Journey to the West series but opening during Chinese New Year with a big name cast sure would make it a blockbuster. 2/5
But if you are a fan like me, yeah, you should watch it once. 3/5
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