Thursday, February 6, 2014

my nomination for 2014 Turkey of the Year

Wrote this on Quora to answer the question What's the worst movie you've ever seen?; thought I'd just share it here.
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Currently the "most popular movie in the world" according to the Hollywood Reporter, this hot mess was supposed to be an epic based on a Chinese legend about a monkey with supernatural powers. This story is a prequel to the 16th-century novel Journey to the West, which was itself adapted into an enjoyable (and highly successful) action comedy by Stephen Chow last year.

My expectations going in were high, drawn to its line of formidable actors (Chow Yun-Fat, Donnie Yen, Aaron Kwok) and curious about the results of a reportedly USD60 million budget. But for a movie that was supposedly three plus years in the making, it looked as if they spent the last two and a half aping around. The graphics looked like they were works of a bunch of amateurs (but they aren't, according to Wiki, "for the 3-D shoot, Filmko recruited Hollywood talents like visual effects supervisor David Ebner (Alice in Wonderland, Spider-Man 3) and special make-up supervisor Shaun Smith (The Forbidden Kingdom, 300, I Am Legend)). The costumes were at best Halloween gear and at some point I felt like I was watching an Asian episode of Hi-5 (Australian TV series). I've watched school productions that were way more polished than this. It's doing really well at the box office however, as it was released just in time for the Chinese New Year crowds who were on week-long holiday.

I've never walked out of the cinema until I watched this movie. I stayed in my seat fidgeting uncomfortably for 40 minutes before deciding to leave. And I rarely, if ever, write movie reviews, but this was so bad that I specifically looked this thread up to rant. Maybe it got better after I left (doubt it).. but just take my word and don't bother.

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