This is a Chinese fantasy film which has just been released in Australia and I believed is also released at the same time in the US. So its based on a novel written in the 16th century which had numerous fantasy elements, such as demons and people with magical powers. What they did was deliberately set this in an alternative fantasy world but kept some of the basic premises the same. If in any doubt that its in an original fantasy world, this world has 3 suns and at least 2 moons (lets not think about the heat and gravitational effects, its just to indicate its not set on Earth). Now this is only part one, although it does have a sense of ending. Presumably a sequel will depend on whether it does well at the box office.
The kingdoms clearly have an Asian theme since its made by China, just like a lot of fantasy in western fantasy novels have a European motif. Since its a fantasy world they can create quite a few things like giant air shps which can hover like a helicopter and fire weapons (spears) and some type of fireworks which is their version of a missile.
Now the basic premise of the original story (which I have not read) is that the kingdom of Zhou is trying to take over its neighbours and the heroes have to stop him. The king is bewitched by a fox demoness Daji, however since that trope seems sexist, they story writers have changed it so that both the king and Daji are in it together on their own free will. A marriage of evil if you will.
The movie could be roughly divided up into 3 parts
a. Rescue the prisoners
b. Quest for the magical item and meet allies along the way
c. Confront the boss
The first part was visually stunning. The chase scene is awesome and the fight between Jet Li's Jiang Ziya and Daji (played by Fan Bingbing who you might remember was Blink in X-men days of future past) was pretty nice. Although it does raise the issue that Jet Li's character was too cocky and he took time to banter with the bad guys. But hey what is these films without banter between the foes.
The second part had the usual pitfalls with this trope of questing for the magical item. This kind of begs the question of
a. Why did it take this long before the heroes learnt of this magical item which could be a game changer. I mean the kingdom of Zhou had pretty much kicked everyone else's arse except one kingdom left.
b. If both sides are aware of this magical item existing (even if they didn't know it could be a game changer) why didn't they expend effort to look for it? This could be explained away like saying its been lost of x number of years, but still.
c. The location of the item is somewhat symbolic but if I say anymore it would spoil it.
The third part of fighting the boss character was nice as well, at least visually. The boss looks like an orc, and that's not a spoiler because its in one of the trailers. The CGI for the boss looked pretty decent, but it's borrowing heavily from Western fantasy tropes. I know we humans would find orcs ugly, so that's why it works, but still it only takes a slight twinge to give it a more Asian motif. For example a form that appears in chinese classics is a demon with 3 faces (on one head) and 6 arms. Simply make this monster have 3 faces and it would have got the Asian motif down right. Or give it horns like a bulldemon, or a face like a dragon's.
Criticism
1. CGI
Some of it is simply overused. For example a flashback scene of the hero as a kid used CGI which did not look good. Simply hire a child actor god damnit. Its most probably cheaper than CGI.
The CGI of the cities look nice. I get the impression that they are giant walled cities with their own splendour.
CGI of people though aren't as good. When Daji uses her tail attack you can see the tail looks like a cross between a nematode and a snake. When you do get scenes where it pauses long enough for you to get a good look, it doesn't look that real. However they manage to overcome this for a lot of scenes because the tail is being used in an attack, so it moves pretty fast so the viewer can't get a good look, and as far as I am concerned, when its almost a blur it looks decent enough.
2. Character development seems rushed
Some of the allies the character meets don't seem that fleshed out in terms of character development. In fact some of the events for one of the characters blatantly occur off screen (granted it was most probably of a minor nature but still). One of the characters is a fantasy version of Nezha and while screen time is given to Nezha's development, if you aren't familiar at least vaguely with the story of the character you would be forgiven for being confused with some of the scenes. So read up about his feud with the dragon king.
Also the relationship between the characters seem rushed. I can understand why the female character might like our hero but not the other way round. To elaborate would spoil it.
3. Cutesy stuff
This is for the kids, although a lot of cute stuff has more appeal among the adult Asian population compared to the adult Western population anyway. I am still trying to decide whether they put a little bit too much in it.
4. Toilet humour
Ok, this appeals to a lot of people through the language barrier, but I get the feeling it was most likely unnecessary. Fortunately it was only for one scene, but a long one. Generally it shouldn't detract too much from the movie.
5. Magical combat
Ok, come on you want a movie where they fire magic at each other. Some of the highlights which might convince you to see the movie
a. Earthbending
Remember the Last Airbender after all those martial arts move the Earthbender just kicks a rock? This isn't like that. Fuck this has got epic Earthbending. Jet Li's character creates giant columns of rock which lift off the ground to knock out airships. The heroes can slam giant pieces of rock into a monster from both sides surrounding it.
b. Martial arts magic
CGI instead of wirefu. It works in this case because Jet Li's character is dodging numerous tail attacks, so the CGI has him moving like a blur.
c. Lightning bolts
One of the characters in the original story could fire lightning bolts, so they had this as well.
***********************************************
Overall I would say its a decent popcorn movie and for those who are interested in something other than Hollywood fare. As a fantasy fan most of the fantasy films I have seen have been the Hollywood fare, a few Chinese and one Russian (Nightwatch) so its worth seeing how other cultures do fantasy especially without the stereotypical European motif.
