The Sorcerer and the White Snake (2011)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Sadly Over-hyped

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I could not help myself liking the love story between human and spirit... similar to the unforgettable Chinese ghost love story but they have improve since then 20 so years after this is the new generation of CGI effects ...I love the part the snake pointed out some spirits are not all bad and human can be worse... I'm a love sick person when it comes to true love ...whew... the last part before they part ways.. no one can deny that this may have been one of the best scene ever made... its filled with emotions .. when the leading man recalls... just so breath takings emotional ... I go back to watch this movie whenever i chance by it again and again and again ... Fresh actors portrayed the four leading roles as human and spirit interact.. the music scoring and the main theme love song has given more impact to the dramatic impact in this movie...Watch it and i know you will agree... Jet li played the major part as the sorcerer but the 4 actors( the lady snakes+ doctor+ monk) stood from the rest ...

This was a good action packed film with stunning special effects and CGI. The film featured a love struck demon snake who falls in love with a mortal man. It has monks who battle against the evil demons. It features an epic battle between good and evil while at the same time you feel empathy for the evil because it is motivated by love. It is not a martial arts film by any means but more of a love story that just happens to have monks who know some form of martial arts but the rely heavily on supernatural powers given to them by a deity or higher power. Even though it was in Mandarin with captions, it was still a good film for anyone who enjoys foreign films and enjoys watching a variety of films from many cultures.

This is a touching story of the 'Romeo and Juliet' kind...albeit with a major fantasy twist and an ending that is bittersweet. Strongly recommended for anyone who loves love stories, plus a heady combination of martial arts, magical powers, fairies, vampires and beautiful cinematography. Award-winning movie superstar Jet Li plays the role of a stern but compassionate master monk battling to save humans from being devoured by demons. The master monk tries to protect a naive TCM physician (played by Hong Kong's hunky star Raymond Lam) from a thousand-year-old White Snake (Eva Huang) who had transformed herself into a beautiful woman, and mayhem ensues.Speaking of which, the CGI and other special effects utilized in the movie are simply gorgeous. The sense of realism derived from this ancient fairytale is enlivened by the use of modern cinematic tools. Too bad there isn't a 3D stereoscopic version...sniff! Apart from the super dooper Kungfu moves (of course), the massive scenes involving tsunami, storms and other super forces of nature conjured up during battles between the master monk and the various demons (including vampires) are show-stoppers in themselves already. And, we have not even included the stellar cast of actors and actresses, ranging from Eva Huang (Stephen Chow's Kungfu Hustle), Wen Zhang (Stephen Chow's record-breaking box office hit Journey to the West - Conquering the Demons), Charlene Choi (Hong Kong's highly popular pop duo Twins) to Vivian Hsu (Taiwan's well-known singer, model and actress).For fans of The Forbidden Kingdom (Jackie Chan and Jet Li), Reign of Assassins (directed by John Woo, title song by BBC World Music award winner Sa Ding Ding, and starring Michelle Yeoh) and Storm Warriors (directed by Pang Brothers and starring Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng), you shall be delighted by this fantastic fantasy movie...pardon the pun.See the extended trailer (over 6 mins) on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKNxI0IqAfM

This is an absolutely awful film which I watched on the strength of a Jet Li leading role alone. Sadly, Li isn't enough to save what soon becomes a mire of inanity and endless fantasy drivel about a romance between a snake demon woman and the human who has the misfortune to fall in love with her. The tone is vapid and silly throughout, and the film is clearly aimed at child viewers with its extremely poor CGI effects and silly fight sequences.The thing that surprises me most about this movie is how poorly judged it is when it comes to sympathising with the characters. Li is presented as a misguided monk who's forced to learn the error of his ways, but he comes across as a paragon of decency and virtue when it comes to the outrageously irritating white snake, played by the terrible Shengyi Huang. Huang's character is presented as childish, stupid, selfish and completely self-obsessed, yet come the climax we're supposed to identify and empathise with her character's plight. Err…no, thanks. She's just a brat, and it's a shame that her character never receives the ass-whupping that she so clearly deserves.As for Jet, well, he's gone on record to complain about this movie; in the first place, he was told he wouldn't have much fighting to do (pretty much all his scenes involve fighting), and secondly, he found the action scenes hard to film because he had to go easy on his opponents while they beat the hell out of him. The action scenes are very poor, I admit, wushu-derivative and singularly lacking in impact. I won't even mention the calibre of the acting or the storyline, which goes on and on until the OTT climax which sees the actors absolutely dwarfed by wave upon wave of lame CGI. And the nonsensical retitling for western audiences? For crying out loud, there isn't even an emperor in the film! How stupid do they think we are?