Guai wu xian sheng

It's a fun movie. Is it a good movie? No. But it's entertaining.

There is action, there are monsters, there is a villain..

And another reviewer said this: "This is just like the book Monster by A. Lee Martinez , same concept ."

Well, yeah, it's the same concept, because if you would have watched the ending it actually says it's based on the book "Monsters" by A. Lee Martinez..

I enjoyed the daylights out of this movie - I mean, the other reviews aren't really wrong - it's like eating cotton candy. That said, during the pandemic - don't we all need a little cotton candy? And who, I ask, is better at making that than China?

This is, in fact, based on the book by Texan author A. Lee Martinez - and it does seem awfully American in theme in a lot of ways, but the setting and characters feel pretty true to China.

Don't think about it too much - just give it a watch on a day when you need a little pick-me-up.

The monsters look great, the CGI is great, the rest is unlikable. There are too many scenes that just go on too long, some scenes that have nothing to do with the plot, what there is of that. Kara Wai as the villain, chews a bit of scenery, but I think that's the director's fault. Then there is the bad guy who we have no idea why he is the bad guy. Or why he and our hero guy want the mcguffin. I is hard to know what this movie is about, this movie has some good action scenes but little else going for it. This could have been a much better movie.

Honestly, the monsters have some of the most compelling designs I've seen in a long time; I was reminded of the first time I saw the original Hellboy movie. The dimension loop scene also reminded me heavily of Inception, and I'm not sure I've ever seen something quite like that specific cinematography before.

Over an hour into the movie, my excitement over the design wore off when I realized there was never going to be an actual plot. The entire movie runs on a story that could be completely described in less than a paragraph. Almost no worldbuilding, no character development to be seen ANYWHERE, and nothing in the dialogue that will be worth remembering later.

Honestly, I want people to watch this movie to enjoy the design and support the crew who put their all into making a garbage story look this good. Maybe watch it dubbed in a language you don't speak and turn off the subtitles; it won't affect the quality of the movie to not understand the words.

Even though it was the typical "girl needs saving, boy needs self-confidence" movie, I enjoyed the monsters and the different take on this type of story. I thought that the monsters were pretty imaginative. Worth a one-time watch, even at 3am. 5.5/10