Monkey King 1: Havoc in Heaven’s Palace 西游记之大闹天宫 is the perfect example of a recurring trend in Chinese movies combining big names, big action and big effects in hopes for a commercial success. The tried and tested formula actually works most of the time especially in the case of Monkey King, which went on to break records in spite of generally bad reviews.
The 2014 Chinese-Hong Kong movie stars an ensemble cast that includes Donnie Yen, Chow Yun Fat, Aaron Kwok, Joe Chen (Stay With Me), Peter Ho, Kelly Chen, Zhang Zilin, Gigi Leung, Xia Zi Tong and Louis Fan.
It tells the origin story of Monkey King, a story we have heard too many times before and in the absence of anything inventive, it literally becomes a hollow spectacle of sorts. For a movie that should have been visually stunning if nothing else, it’s a shame that it is not but you know what, I still recommend that you see it for yourself because truth be told, people loved this enough to make it a top grosser.
Release Date: January 31, 2014
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