A westerner's view:
(often confused by comments written by local viewers, I believe it would be useful sometimes to know the non-local origin of the commentator)
Discouraged by 1st installment I had avoided that for many years until I gave a try to its trailer (I normally watch trailers only of the movies that at first sight I wouldn't watch). It looked quite convincing so I decided to give it a try with still many doubts.
On the opposite of other Chinese Fantasy movies where the plot is messy and movie feels like 5 hours long due to many subplots and sub-protagonists, the story progressed very well from the start, with clear protagonists and antagonists and with a clear story line showing what it is about without being done with a white thread.
The CGI was far superior to what I was used from Asian movies and had nothing to envy in comparison to US blockbusters, if not the opposite. There was a great depiction of what I perceived as Dragonball's dragon had become alive.
Except famous Gong Li who of course excelled as the anti-hero, the rest of the cast was for me a bit less familiar than other top shelf Chinese actors, but nevertheless they stood the way the should have done and A.Kowk played really well despite the heavy make-up.
Plenty of locations, settings and spectacular fight scenes completed an epic journey worth watching, or even re-watching
On the opposite of other Chinese Fantasy movies where the plot is messy and movie feels like 5 hours long due to many subplots and sub-protagonists, the story progressed very well from the start, with clear protagonists and antagonists and with a clear story line showing what it is about without being done with a white thread.
The CGI was far superior to what I was used from Asian movies and had nothing to envy in comparison to US blockbusters, if not the opposite. There was a great depiction of what I perceived as Dragonball's dragon had become alive.
Except famous Gong Li who of course excelled as the anti-hero, the rest of the cast was for me a bit less familiar than other top shelf Chinese actors, but nevertheless they stood the way the should have done and A.Kowk played really well despite the heavy make-up.
Plenty of locations, settings and spectacular fight scenes completed an epic journey worth watching, or even re-watching