The monkey king full movie part 1 online free

Kwok has been set to dark, brooding mode, which he does quite well, but he never really bothers to snap out of it. He gets approximately one scene to tumble through the air with his trademark acrobatic grace, after which he's submerged beneath a maelstrom of CGI and wirework. Yen manages to be charismatically cheeky as Monkey, even though he seems to think that acting like a monkey involves blinking a lot and very fast. They do, and they don't, largely because the terrible script prevents them from doing much good. You might think that the three actors holding up the film might salvage it in some way. In fact, it shambles about so much that it becomes unintentionally funny. It dutifully checks off each stage of Monkey's rebellion against the Jade Emperor - from anointing himself the Great Sage Equal To Heaven to, briefly, becoming the divine horsekeeper and later eating forbidden celestial peaches - but fails to connect any of them in a meaningful way. The script is dreadful, blundering from scene to scene with little care for continuity or character development. Almost miraculously, The Monkey King - which focuses on Monkey's fall from grace, a mix of his own arrogance and the demonic lies he unfortunately chooses to believe - wastes almost every iota of the novel's magic and potential. Monkey's journey is one of humility and, eventually, enlightenment.

The allegory, of course, is one that chimes with the Buddhist scriptures: the hubris of Monkey doubles as that of humankind, the notion that we believe ourselves to be somehow greater and more important than we are, that we can rail against the heavens and win. Journey To The West is, truly, a marvellous source of material for a film adaptation: it's morally rich, thematically complex and spiritually enlightening, with huge helpings of adventure, fantasy and derring-do. But, under the manipulative influence of the Bull Demon King (Kwok), Monkey soon finds himself returning to the heavenly palace to wreak havoc beyond anyone's worst nightmares. Soon, he establishes himself as the King of Huaguo Mountain, where he lives with his obedient flock of monkeys. As he trains with a pack of human disciples who mock him for being more simian than they are, Monkey picks up skills, weapons, and a monumental ego. Monkey's fate, so it seems, can bring peace or chaos his own mischievous personality balanced between good and evil. Monkey (Yen) is one of the vestiges of NГјwa's grace, cast down to the mortal realm and trapped in a mountain. The film opens with an epic war in the heavens, one that results in the goddess NГјwa having to sacrifice herself to rebuild the celestial palace of the Jade Emperor (Chow). Brew all those mistakes together, and director Cheang Pou-Soi has really mucked it up big-time. The CGI is mostly awful, and the make-up/costumes almost laughably amateurish.

All three stars are hamstrung in their roles, forced to play the fool or brood anti-heroically in place of a script that actually gives them something real and meaty to do.

The movie is remarkably faithful to some elements of the novel, and deviates tragically in others. In practice, everything about The Monkey King screams travesty. In theory, this is a film to get enormously excited about. Hollywood talents have been recruited to oversee the make-up and special effects for the film. It stars three of Chinese cinema's most familiar and respected faces: Donnie Yen, Chow Yun-Fat and Aaron Kwok. It's an adaptation of Journey To The West, the classic Chinese novel which tells the hugely-beloved tale of a daring, gifted monkey who falls from the heavens and must find his way back again. On paper, everything about The Monkey King screams blockbuster.

The monkey king full movie part 1 online free