First of all, one of the better things about "Golden Spider City" is that the movie drops the audience into the action from the very beginning, and that was a nice way to start off the movie.
Writers Huan Shu and Muye Zhang put together a fair enough script for the movie, however it would have been nice if the movie stuck to one particular type of genre, instead of being all over the place. The script and storyline calls for a fairly serious narrative, but it is laced with slapstick comedy from time to time, and it sort of feels like it is slowing the movie down. The good part about the script is that it is a mixture of movies such as "Indiana Jones", "Tomb Raider" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth". So if you enjoy adventurous explorer movies, then you would find something enjoyable in "Golden Spider City".
I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but they had a fairly good handful of actors and actresses. Especially Mengqi Chen (playing Sima Hui) and Steven Liu (playing Sima Cong) carried the movie nicely with their performances.
Some of the dialogue was just downright strange, and I assume it was the translation from Mandarin to English that caused these odd phrasings to take place in the subtitles.
Something that struck me as odd in "Golden Spider City" was how well-lit everything was so deep underground. That just made zero sense. Sure, I understand that the audience could see the surroundings, but it just made no logical sense for the subterranean location to be lit at all.
Also, I was a bit perplexed with the fact that no one, absolutely no one, was even the least bit mortified or even taken aback when the monstrous spiders emerged and dropped down upon them to attack them, as if fighting spiders three to four times your size was a daily occurrence where they lived.
And as it is, unfortunately, with a lot of movies that deal with monstrous creatures of some sort, then what is up with the growling sounds? Sure, I understand that it is supposed to be intimidating, but come on. It just makes no sense for a spider to be growling, especially when it has no vocal chords.
As a creature feature, then "Golden Spider City" is very dependent on having good special effects to entertain the audience. And I will say that the spiders, thankfully, were nicely rendered and looked real enough on the screen. However, the environment was another matter, because it was blatantly obvious that it was CGI rendered, because it looked rather fake and lacking in texture.
Watchable for what it was, and enjoyable for a single viewing, I found "Golden Spider City" to be a bit disappointing, because I had expected a tad more from director Yilin Dai. While the movie is watchable for a single viewing, it is hardly a movie that has enough contents to support a single viewing.
My rating of "Golden Spider City" lands on a five out of ten stars.
