Xi you ji: Da nao tian gong (2014)

Xi you ji: Da nao tian gong: Directed by Soi Cheang. With Donnie Yen, Chow Yun-Fat, Aaron Kwok, Yitian Hai. A monkey born from heavenly stone acquires supernatural powers and must battle the armies of both gods and demons to find his place in the heavens.

“…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 isnu0026#39;t right for him and in this movie he makes a fool out of himself till 3/4u0026#39;s of the way thru. he is known for his action movies and there isnu0026#39;t much of that as the movie is almost all cgi and wire-fu.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003efor most of the movie the cgi was almost laughable, iu0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ei 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 werenu0026#39;t that interesting either. basically just about nothing works in this movie…and now for its saving grace.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eif 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 2/3u0026#39;s to 3/4u0026#39;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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eso, if the movie isnu0026#39;t that appealing…just make sure you watch the last third or quarter and youu0026#39;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.”