Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back (2017)

Where to begin with this movie... I felt odd after it ended to be honest. The movie itself had a beginning, middle and end and the end was actually pretty solid for an action/fantasy movie to me at least. Afterwards though it felt lackluster, perhaps more or less from my own hype train of, "It's Kris Wu!! It's a movie about enlightenment and demon hunting!! Of course it will be good!!"

I did not watch any other adaptations or the original film, but this is a pretty straight forward sequel. Tang Zeng (Kris Wu) is a buddhist monk attempting to achieve full enlightenment, including but not limited to the use of the "Buddha's hand", a move that can even stop the all powerful Monkey King (Lin Geng Zin), along with the two olther companions "Piggy" (Pig God/King) and "Sandy" (Fish God/king). They attempt to move through a fantasy landscape in order to find the sutras 'in the west' in order for them to achieve enlightement. However, there's some demons, kings, and romantic situations in between taking them off course.

I found all the character's enjoyable to watch, and not overbearing. The cast is well rounded with evil and good characters, characters with plot twists that aren't 100% readable, as well as some backstory and depth to them. The most engaging part is the emphasis between Tang Zeng and the Monkey King's relationship. The developments won't have you in tears, but you will smile when all is revealed. Lin Yun's character, while late in the story and appearance rather brief is really striking as well in more ways then one. I was pleasantly  surprised with her delivery and chemistry with the rest of the cast.  Some of the CGI effects are both good, and bad. The more subtle usage is excellent and works well. Some of the more extreme usages of it are overbearing. However, there is a healthy mix of both so it doesn't affect my overall score of the film. And there are comedy elements in the film to balance out the action and more serious scenes, a few of them even got me to chuckle.

The music to me, didn't really add or subtract to the overall story. In fact, I don't remember much of it at all. And due to my opinion of a 'lackluster' ending, my rewatch value is low. The movie isn't deep enough in plot that I feel compelled to watch again, and the action scenes while engaging in first watch are interesting, overall didn't really stun me.

An okay movie to pass the time with in my opinion. If you're a fan of any of the actors or actresses listed, this would be a solid film to watch inbetween some of their masterpieces.

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If you want to watch a proper parody of Journey to the West, I suggest to watch the original version: A Chinese Odyssey (1995) part1&2 and the "prequel" of this movie that it's still greatly better with so many Easters from the classic adaptations. This time, Stephen Chow just wrote the script and didn´t direct it so maybe that's why...

I don't even need to justify why I didn´t like it, I simply watched better ones before and then I encountered this. I tried to enjoy it as a mere entertainment, but I couldn´t. The main character that is the monk, doesn´t convince me as a monk, the Monkey King is just plainly angry all the time, the pig has also another complex and the fish... I wouldn´t know how to describe it. In general, they don´t possess a very deep character development, even as a mere way of attempting to entertain, it was difficult to swallow.

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