NipPierce Wow, this is a REALLY bad movie!

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Leofwine_draca THE MONKEY KING: HAVOC IN HEAVEN'S PALACE is the latest outing for the classic hero of Chinese literature, and I'm ashamed to say that it's by far the worst ever adaptation I've seen. It also happens to be one of the worst Chinese films I've watched. What we have here is a sprawling CGI mess of endless stupid action sequences full of lamentable CGI effects and terrible choreography. Donnie Yen frankly embarrasses himself in the lead role, going way over the top with the physical tics and comedy, while others like Chow Yun-Fat and Aaron Kwok are merely wasted. The CGI is so bad that I've seen early-morning children's CGI animation with better effects, and the story is non-existent. Warning: it rarely gets any worse than this!

heath-jeffrey My wife and I watched the first 30-35min of the movie before giving up, so I can't comment on the last ~80min. But the first quarter was consistent, so I can only assume the rest was much the same.It felt like a movie created by a very new director with such a passion for CGI that s/he decided the whole thing should be about that. Therefore minimal plot, minimal acting, minimal character development, minimal kung fu. The acting being especially laughable. I think in the first quarter, with about 10min of character time, Chow Yunfat (Zhou Runfa) said about three lines and gave 1-2min of slow, exaggerated facial expression. The rest was his semi-animated body flying around the screen, in a battle with the antagonist, in an uncontrolled burst of CGI.To make things worse, the CGI itself is nothing special. It would be impressive in a computer game, but is too unrealistic for this kind of big budget movie - it comes of as cheesy. And just to really emphasise the cheesiness, many of the characters are wearing stage/theatre style costumes, reminiscent of early versions of movies like the Wizard of OZ. Costumes that nowadays feel like an lighthearted educational TV show for children.Male, female, Chinese, Australian, neither of us found anything of value within the first 15min. We love some of the main actors and gave it the benefit of the doubt, watching for another ~20min, and sadly had to give up.Fingers crossed, The Monkey King 2 (2016) will have a lot less animation to make room for some genuine acting and character development.

OttoVonB Loudly heralded by flattering headlines and a record-setting budget (and box office in China, supposedly), The Monkey King crashes onto our screens and torrent servers in all its kitsch glory. Will the verdict be kind? Of course not.First, let's get back to basics: the legend of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, is a cornerstone of Chinese folklore and literature, and deservedly so. It is one of the great written human myths, and a large part of its appeal is universal, which would make it an ideal flagship project for a transnational production effort. You could adapt only select bits and end up with a great crowd-pleaser, as was done to hilarious results by Stephen Chow's A Chinese Odyssey. The present effort aims to tell us the whole thing + prequel-style expansion in the form of a trilogy of 3D blockbusters. Ye shall be judged by the expectations ye set! Though the budget sets a record for China, the quality of the result in terms of effects (be they digital or makeup) is woefully sub-par, and the art direction is a mess, making this a frequently incoherent eyesore.Then, let's look at the talent involved: Chow Yun-Fat and Donnie Yen's charisma and comic sense (respectively) eclipse anything else thrown up on screen, and might have gobbled up most of the budget. Yen gets away with it, wisely playing it both ways and seemingly the only person involved who knows this is all a big joke. Another contributor who barely gets mention in the comments section is Christopher Young, who's marvelous score annihilates anything composed that year and is worth discovering on its own.It's worth pausing the sarcasm and shedding a regretful tear, for this whole enterprise could have amounted to something more tasteful - an animated feature could have been stupendous! - yet behold: the worst kind of fiasco, one that escapes financial disaster and thus runs the risk of spawning a whole host of similar horrors. But the real Monkey King is stronger than all that, and since filmmakers can't stay clear of his gravitational pull for long, one can hope in a few years time someone will do him justice.Avoid this garbage and read the source, preferably while listening to this film's unbelievably great score.

bcheng93 ...with a budget of almost 90 million US dollars(biggest Chinese movie budget to date), and this is what they came up with? there were many major problems with this movie, first off having Donnie Yen as the monkey king was a big big no no. the mans facial features are as expressive as wood and recently you can tell how egotistical he has become. he wants every big role in a big movie even if it isn't right for him and in this movie he makes a fool out of himself till 3/4's of the way thru. he is known for his action movies and there isn't much of that as the movie is almost all cgi and wire-fu.for most of the movie the cgi was almost laughable, i've literally seen better in video games, and they had help from the cgi team that did Avatar( i think the team took the money and ranned ). it was going to be hard to cgi the right way cause the book was so detailed and deep.i went into this movie not expecting much and wind up not getting much, there were no development of characters, some of the costumes were laughably bad and the other 2 leads weren't that interesting either. basically just about nothing works in this movie...and now for its saving grace.if you watch this movie make sure you finish it, because the last quarter of the movie is freakin awesome and makes up for sitting thru the first 2/3's to 3/4's of the movie. everything picked up close to the end...it almost seemed like a different team stepped in to finish the movie, in every aspect. the fighting got good( you actually see real fight moves from Donnie). the story and acting got tighter and best of all, the cgi looked as good as any that Hollywood can put out, and it was exciting.so, if the movie isn't that appealing...just make sure you watch the last third or quarter and you'll feel a lot less screwed...the ending of the movie was its saving grace and just might save the movie from disaster. i give this movie a 5.8 out of 10. save the popcorn for the last 30 minutes of the movie.