League of Gods

Before attending the preview of this Chinese summer action fantasy blockbuster, this writer came across an online article about how the movie is being billed as a "Chinese X Men". Next, he watched the trailer and had a nagging feeling that he will have nothing good to say about this star studded production (if you are not the hugest fan of overdoses of special effects and computer generated creatures, then you are on this reviewer's side).

True enough, the 110 minute movie throws scene after scene of pompous action sequences at its viewers. There is nothing particularly original about this production – it is really a messy mashup of things you have seen elsewhere.

Based on the Ming Dynasty novel Fengshen Yanyi (Investiture of the Gods) by Xu Zhonglin, the story starts of with a tyrannical king (a bored looking Tony Leung, who had seen better days in movies like the recent Cold War 2), who is also bewitched by a beautiful empress (Fan Bingbing, who is the best part about this movie), who is in fact an ancient fox demon (watch out for her giant tentacles!). Just as the evil duo are about to kill off a good guy who is holding the secrets to destroy the ultimate baddie known as the Black Dragon, good guys in the form of a righteous young man (an earnest Jacky Heung who can't save the movie) and a powerful sorcerer (Jet Li, who can definitely do much better than this).

Elsewhere, there is a villainous general who rides on a CG black panther (Louis Koo, who probably is happy from earning some easy bucks), a rebellious warrior who flies around on CG fire wheels (Wen Zhang, who took over the role from Cecilia Chung after she was fired for poor behaviour) and a righteous warrior who yields CG weapons (an underused Huang Xiaoming). Oh, there is also the love interest character (Angelababy, looking as pretty as ever with her big dreamy eyes) who looks really happy when she sees CG blue butterflies. The good guys are supposed to hunt down a mighty sword which is supposed to save the world (but of course).

To be honest, the story does have quite a bit of potential to capitalise the characters' campy abilities and the demons' out of this world powers to produce an entertaining piece of work. Unfortunately, when you have HK$300 million to blow on a movie, budget is spent on trying to impress the masses with CG scenes (this columnist might have been more impressed if there were animatronics on display). Money was probably also spent on "foreign talents" like composer John Debney (The Jungle Book), animation director Randall William Cook (The Lord of the Rings), sound designer Brent Burge (The Hobbit) and editor Wayne Philip Wahrman (I Am Legend).

The result? A mess that can hardly be salvaged. We just need to mention one scene for you to know what to expect – A CG Nezha invades an underwater palace and destroys CG sea monsters with CG fart. Yup, you read it right. We rest our case here - till the sequel comes along (yup, there will probably be one).

This is absolutely by far, one of the worst Chinese mythology adaptation I've ever seen in my 28 years as a Chinese. The biggest flaw is how the characters had almost no resemblance to their original selves, they were "westernized" for the sake of appealing to the western audience. The story was all over the place, pointless and the screen play was obviously rushed - where it felt like the director had a checklist of what to do and just went with it. They took the essential core of Chinese mythology and just littered it with as much explosions as possible. I mean, space ships... really?

As for any saving grace, I'd give the movie some props for having a very decent audio mastering prowess. The LFE was taut, it wasn't overbearing and it has a sense of weight whenever the scene asks for it. There's also some good usage of surround effects, voices pan with very nice and wide separation that makes it a little eerie to listen to at times.

China's visual department has definitely came a long way. They're still a few steps behind Hollywood as a whole, but they're definitely closer than ever. Good effort by the VFX team, unfortunately the decision in making the whole movie look like the Avengers was a big turn off.

This is a mediocre movie at best and most of the time, it's just simply bad. It deserves a 3 simply because of its audio presentation and a nod to the VFX team. Other than that, this movie belongs in the litter box of garbage movies.

I thought Chinese are getting better at making movies after watching the mermaid,dragon blade and journey to the west. The story is about an evil king with a beautiful empress who is a nine tail fox demon. Our heros must find a legendary sword and together defeat the villains.We have a villain general riding on black panther like he man, a hero who flies on weird rings, another hero with wings and more blah blah.Sooo much potential completely ruined. The movie is filled with cgi and action but no space for story or character development. They put too much in one movie.The scenes jump from one action scene to other without any connection. My head still hurts watching this mess.Even the action and visuals were very confusing and too fast. Just when an action scene ends another one starts without giving any room for the characters to interact.There was no proper introduction to the setting and any details about the life of character's.In the second half a little bit drama made me give this five stars. A disappointment from Jet li who tried to be gandalf in this movie. I couldn't stop laughing when they showed signs of a sequel at the end. Finally a great comment from a youtuber.

"It's all fun and games until a baby goes cgi".

I can't believe the low score for this movie and the bad reviews complaining about the effects. Yes, there's a lot of CGI in this movie but no more than you see in the Avengers or Star Trek. And yes the storyline is a bit weird at times, but it's an Asian fantasy movie based on a centuries old fable so things are gonna be a little different. I thought some of the action scenes were amazing and there was some funny moments and some great acting. Grab some popcorn, turn your brain off for 100 minutes and sit back and enjoy the show without overanalysing things and you'll have a good time. Can't wait for the sequel...

It goes from amazing to ridiculous in about 30 minutes. It started with such a promise. Also, the story does not finish and its sequel is never made. At least they could have finished the story.