Yun nan chong gu

I really liked the first MOJIN film, so I went to a Chinese cinema to see the second one in 3D, but the story and execution were not as good as in the first one. This time the adventurers go to the mystical province of Yunan, looking for a talisman that is protected by armies of large monsters (lizards, scorpions, a killer crab etc), but things end up too melodramatic, although the CGI effects are actually well done.

I enjoyed the 2016 "Mojin: The Lost Legend", so of course I sat down to watch the 2018 movie "Mojin: Valley of the Worms" here in 2021 when I was presented with the opportunity to do so.

However, I must say that this 2018 movie is a step back for the franchise. Whereas the 2016 movie was driven by a proper story and felt like a thrilling adventure, this 2018 movie is just an empty shall of a movie presented by pretty CGI visuals.

The storyline in "Yun nan chong gu" (aka "Mojin: Valley of the Worms") felt like it was written on a short flight somewhere. There was little contents to the storyline, except for a constant outrunning and battling CGI creatures. So if you sit down to watch "Mojin: Valley of the Worms" hoping you're in for a thrilling adventure, you might want to skip on this movie.

As for the characters in the movie, well they felt like cardboard cut-outs really, as they did little more than either try to outrun or fight CGI creatures. So you are not in for a whole lot of character development or interactions here.

Director Xing Fei just didn't really manage to deliver a movie that felt up to par with the 2016 movie in any ways. Sure, "Mojin: Valley of the Worms" was watchable, but this is essentially just a movie where you lean back in the chair, turn off your brain, munch on the popcorn and just enjoy the pretty CGI effects.

"Mojin: Valley of the Worms" was a disappointment, and it is hardly a movie that I will ever watch again, as there was just too little contents to the storyline to support more than a single viewing.

My rating of the 2018 movie "Mojin: Valley of the Worms" lands on a very lukewarm and mediocre five out of ten stars.

Save yourself, your time and your money. This movie was so incredibly awful, I was compelled to write this review, and I never write reviews. There is 0 character development so when something goes badly for a character, no one cares. Scenes that are meant to draw any feelings of compassion and forced and way too drawn out, same with fight scenes. we're being chased oh no! let's run , then hide, then run, then hide, then let's attack one at a time and be thrown back one at at time, then run again.

I was literally going to walk out, until I started watching this movie as a comedy at how bad it was, that alone let me sit through it. The actors do seem to make an effort, but the script and directing was so terrible, there was no saving it. Upon leaving the theatre, the other 7 people in the audience with me (all chinese) were all laughing at what a piece of garbage this movie was.

Xun long jue (2015) was the first film from this series and, with all of its faults, it was entertaining and even enjoyable. Not so this film, which is a sequel in name of characters only. The actors are different, the dynamic of the group is different, the special effects and magical imaginary animals are the only attractive thing about the movie. The rest is all completely awful: the characterization, the acting, the dialogue, the editing, the plot, the story, the motivation of the characters, the ending. There is no explanation on who anybody is and how they got there or why the world seems to be our current one, but be inhabited by magical animals residing in areas managed by particular clans.

And none of it makes any sense to the point where it gets absolutely ridiculous. For example: they leave on rafts on a quiet river or lake, then the water starts to move faster and faster until it gets to a huge waterfall. The heroes survive that, only to be surrounded by some lizards so they have to jump (heroically) on a slope filled with rocks on which they all hit themselves repeatedly to no actual consequence. Here they go slightly up on a tree trunk over a precipice and reach a floating island. Now read that again, carefully: they drop huge distances twice from the level of a lake and they reach an island floating at great heights over a large valley. Even Avatar's Pandora makes more sense.

The general feel of the movie is that of a really bad video game. They just move from stage to stage, without any concern on how the stages are connected , why they are in this order and why the hero didn't take a more convenient road to get to something lying on the shore of a peaceful lake, but the graphics are great. Some characters die - mostly pointless deaths - and you can't possibly feel anything because no one made the effort to make the audience care for anyone involved.

Bottom line: this has absolutely no real connection with the first film. There is no reason to watch it at all. It is barely a film and as such, a terrible film.

If you're looking for action / adventure, this movie has it. Don't go in expecting much more. The plot is thin, the storyline consists of run run hide run some more stab run shoot a bow and never run out of arrows run run run hide run hide run more jump... well, that's the story.

The ending is especially disappointing as it just hangs the audience in mid air and leaves them there, as if we're supposed to magically know what the director is thinking. Is this a cliff hanger to a third movie? Did they succeed or fail in their quest? The writers never clue the audience in on what's going on.

The CGI in this was superb. The sets, the monsters, etc, are all up to snuff-- as one would expect in any 2018 movie worth its salt. However the characters are 2-D, the plot resolution non-existent, the movie ultimately disappointing. I'm being generous in giving it a mediocre 5 stars... and that's based on CGI alone (as well as some pleasant music in a few places).

There's just no excuse for sloppy, lazy writing. If ya don't have a good script, don't make the movie.