Rating: **
Review Date: 5/16/25
Cast: Fan Bingbing, Kris Wu, Cheney Chen, William Chan, Amber Kuo,
Mi Yang
This movie caught my eye at the video store, not only because it wasn't in the foreign film section, but because it was in the live action section. I saw the cover and knew right away it was a CGI film, which intrigued me, so I picked it up. Unfortunately, it's not very good. Much like the animated "Resident Evil" films, the animation is superb, but the story is lacking and the English dubbing is appallingly bad. It's baffling why the DVD didn't offer the original dialog, but I suppose that's because the target demographic is the YA fantasy audience. (although they shouldn't be strangers to reading subtitles)
In the spirit of classic Chinese literature, the story is needlessly convoluted and full of deception and betrayal. I can only assume that the English translation dumbs it down and makes it even more confusing. Qi Ling (Cheney Chen) is an annoying busboy at an inn, who gets attacked by a soul beast and somehow absorbs its power. As a result, soul master Yin Chen (Kris Wu) is instructed to find Qi Ling and make him his disciple. Part of his training involves entering a soul cave to find his soul weapon, where he meets a bratty princess (Yun Lin) and a cold-hearted woman named Lian Quan (Fan Bingbing). They barely escape the cave alive, and uncover a conspiracy among the noble lords. Meanwhile, a bunch of other nonsense goes down which introduces more characters, whose loyalties and alignments are constantly changing. Given all the moral ambiguity, the whole notion of good guys and bad guys has no meaning here, apart from the fact that Thalia (Amber Kuo) and You Ming (William Chan) simply look evil. By the end of the movie, a huge battle goes down where everyone turns against Lian Quan, and then Yin Chen betrays everyone else to join her, leaving Qi Ling alone and brokenhearted. Nothing is resolved, and the entire film is just a set-up for a sequel that came out in 2020.
For better or worse, the film plays out like an extended cut scene from a video game. The dynamic angles and sweeping camera movements are breathtaking, but can also be a bit overwhelming. The animation looks great, and the characters are stylized just enough to stay outside of the Uncanny Valley. They also interact well with the environment, which gives them a sense of belonging. Unfortunately, the characters themselves are mostly uninteresting and unlikable. Qi Ling is supremely irritating and obnoxious, which sucks because he's the main character. How are we supposed to relate to and care about this idiot? Shen Yin (Mi Yang) seems likable at first, and then she effectively disappears for the rest of the film. Given that Fan Bingbing gets star billing, you would expect her to play a larger role and have some amount of charisma, but she ends up being overly stoic and dull. Interestingly, she also gets star billing in the sequel, but her character was written out of the film due to her 2018 tax scandal. That leaves the quiet and composed Yin Chen as the only likable character in the cast, and he's also by far the most attractive.
Despite being overly long, the pacing is decent and there's always something interesting to look at, whether it's the beautiful environments, detailed textures, dramatic lighting effects, or the ornate outfits. The dramatic music score hits all of the right emotional beats and sets an appropriate fantasy world tone. If it weren't for the awful and grating English dubbing, I would probably give this three stars, although the loose and meandering story structure still makes it challenging to follow.