League of Gods (2016)

Thanks for the memories!

Good concept, poorly executed.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

First of all, let's get the main issue everyone talks about out of the way. Yes, there's a lot of CGI, but I feel they did pretty well with it. I don't think they could achieve the epic level they were aiming for without it, and I personally liked all the eye candy.This movie felt like an Asian Lord of the Rings on steroids, massive steroids, almost to the point where they should be illegal steroids. Where Lord of the Rings was a bit too slow for my taste, this story moved way too fast.Characters were dished out left and right so fast and with so little explanation that you're left wondering where they came from and what their reason really is for being there at all. Imagine the Avengers without the previous movies of each hero to help you learn about and understand them. In fact I'd love to see solo movies for some of the characters here like Jiang, Ne Zha, Erlang Shen...There's so much content that they have to work with here, but it was all thrust into one large movie that was frankly just too much, especially for us Westerners that don't have much knowledge of the backgrounds to these stories.Anyway, don't expect a deep story with deep characters. Just take it for what it is - a gorgeous, epic fantasy action adventure - and you'll enjoy it.

Personally i don't understand all the heavy complaining there is about CG these days, it doesn't just appear in Asian rooted movies, but in Western cultured movies as well. People are so easily irritated and left unsatisfied these days and complain about things that, until half a century ago, were not even possible. Go back to the age of stop motion CGI and then come back to complain again.anyway, to keep it to this movie, i personally am a very large fan of fantasy movies of any kind. There is just something special about Asian rooted fantasy movies in particular that i love. I've always been a sucker for the grand sets, colorful costumes and designs, and even the kind of images they can bring to life with CG.If you can look past the fact that Naza, in his child form is clearly CG and unreal. If you can look past the fact that more of these creatures made with CG just don't have that realistic look, then it's much easier to enjoy the movie. Yes the plot is a bit messy, and because there are so many elements it's hard to follow. But despite that, i do love the debt that it gives and it goes further then heroes just bashing on each other, good fighting evil, etc.I for one, found the movie really enjoyable and i would watch it again. If you have a love for fantasy, super powers and war between good and evil, and can put yourself past a distinct use of CG and a messy plot, then it's not a waste of time to watch this.

I don't normally write reviews but this movie is just God awful. A reviewer said that you shouldn't view the movie with western eyes because it's an Asian film. I'm Chinese and this film is the worst Chinese film I've ever seen. The actors are under utilized; the cgi is over the top, ugly, and unrealistic; the plot is just terrible. I'm so confused on who the main actor is, because there are so many subplots. You can develop characters without the subplots. What is that under the sea scene about? Didn't the evil general perish in the sky? How did he appear on the battlefield? The editing is just terrible. The edit at the beginning of the movie when the king is having a celebration while a jailbreak is going on is just risible. It's just a terrible terrible film. Please, no sequel.

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).