I have to say that I was actually lured in by the movie's cover/poster, and with it being a gargantuan creature feature and a Chinese one at that, of course I have to sit down and watch "Ju e dao" (aka "Crocodile Island") from writer Minming Ni.
Well, perhaps the concept idead behind "Ju e dao" was good in thought, spirit and on script paper, but the transition to the screen didn't really make for an impressive movie from directors Shixing Xu and Simon Zhao. Actually, the movie wasn't even mediocre. It was sort of lazy writing actually ,as writer Minming Ni was borrowing a bit too heavily from the Jules Verne novel.
The storyline was just generic and bland to the point where I didn't care about the characters or the storyline itself.
The characters in "Ju e dao" were bland and faceless. I didn't know where one character ended and the next started, because they had zero personalities and zero quirks or traits that would make them unique and likeable. So I didn't invest anything in the character gallery in this 2020 movie.
Then there were the special effects. They were special alright, but not in a good way. It was hard to fathom how such lousy CGI animation and horrible rendered textures would make it to the screen in 2020. It looked awful, and it took away so much enjoyment from the movie. A creature feature with gargantuan creatures is worth nothing without having proper CGI and effects to make them realistic and believable. Yeah, they didn't have that in "Ju e dao", believe you me.
Well, we are not out of the forest just yet. The acting performances in "Ju e dao" were horrible. It was for the most part very, very amateurish, staggering and wooden to look at. And that definitely didn't help to spruce up an otherwise flaccid and pointless character gallery.
You might want to save yourself the anguish and waste of nearly one and a half hour by skipping out on "Ju e dao" entirely. It just simply wasn't an outstanding, enjoyable or memorable movie experience.
My rating of "Ju e dao" lands of a three out of ten stars.
