L'empire du roi-singe

Some other commentators have bemoaned the historical faults, others the romantic interest. To which I say this - first off, it was a made for TV movie. What is the first role of such a movie? To entertain. Perhaps the History Channel will do a more accurate documentary, if that's what people want. As for the romance, where would the movie "Titanic" have been without the love story? Similarly, this movie needs the romantic interest to move the very 21st Century "Scholar" into a position to want to get involved with people that are more the stuff of Myth, Legend, and to a great degree, Hope. Otherwise, why should he bother? "The Journey West" is a story I'd not heard of. Now, even with this fanciful introduction, I think I'll go look it up and read it. To bring me to do this, both the movie, and other comments here, have thus been successful. Microwave up the popcorn, sit back and enjoy the show. Just don't take it too seriously, just enjoy it for the entertainment that it is.

Surprisingly and shockingly awful. There are a lot of significant events, but no story. Constant stickfights that all look the same, aren't very exciting, and all the good guys win far too easily so no tension is created, do not make a movie action packed. Constant scenes of giant whirlpools or people flying do not make a movie magical when the scenes are poorly done and completely unmotivated by character. Watching two people kiss and express their love for one another does not make a movie romantic unless the two characters have some chemistry and interaction. The problem isn't that this movie is cheesy and formulaic. The problem is that the cheesy formula is unbelievably poorly executed. The characters are never developed, the special effects (especially the tiger) are often second rate, the story is not only derivative of every fantasy movie ever but derivative of itself (two separate villages that have had their children kidnapped by bad people), at least don't repeat your own ideas in the same movie. Dialogue is awful and cardboard, and the acting is pretty much lousy. This is everything the typical, paint-by-numbers approach to movie making yields. This movie is so bad it's insulting to it's audience. Horrible. Save yourselves and don't go near this worthless mess of a mini-series.

Yes, the weaknesses of this movie are numerous. The acting is, for the most part, horribly wooden, particularly with the lesser supporting characters. The real-world history is way off (among other flaws already pointed out in other reviews, "Journey to the West" is, according to what I've read at least, closer to 400 years old than 500, and the official objection to the manuscript was its nontraditional form rather than its content). Some of the characters, particularly four of the Five Traditional Masters, are way underdeveloped. Portraying Confucius as a self-serving sycophant is just *wrong.*

If you're already familiar with the original story of "Journey to the West" and can't bear to see it butchered -- which is exactly what happens here -- then follow the one-star ratings given here and avoid this movie like the plague.

For anyone else, this is a fun piece of work. It was hardly Emmy-worthy in any category (with the possible exception of Bai Ling's impassioned performance as the Goddess of Mercy) and has numerous plot holes not worthy of David Huang, but the story travels on well with only a couple of relatively minor diversions (well, I guess NBC wanted to make sure they had a good two-part miniseries), one can really care about those characters that do receive proper development, and can wonder and worry about the story's outcome.

The Lost Empire is a excellent updating and play off a an ancient Chinese novel entitled "Journey to the West".

For viewers who have some knowledge of Chinese myths and stories this movie is a real treat. It brings back all the wonderful characters of one of the most beloved novels of childhood.

On the other hand if you don't have a clue who the Monkey King was, let alone the celestial Kingdom and the Jade Emperor, than you might not get the underlying story elements, but the movie should still be a great deal of fun simply as a great adventure story with wonderful special effects and some very amusing characters.

This movie can be enjoyed by young and old. Think of it as an Asian version of Wizard of Oz, Ben Hur and Indiana Jones all rolled into one.

This movie is a contemporary take on the classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West," which is a fictionalized account of the legends around the Buddhist monk Xuánzàng's pilgrimage to India during the Táng dynasty in order to obtain Buddhist religious texts called sutras.

The ministers have imprisoned the writer of the book, and are attempting to destroy it to reverse time back to traditional Chinese life, i.e. before any modernization. The modern world will be destroyed unless The Scholar From Above (Thomas Gibson) can enter the underworld and save it.

Don't make any mistake. Gibson would not have taken one step except for the fact that he was following the luscious Bai Ling, who anyone would follow to the gates of Hell.

He rescues Sun Wukong the Monkey King (Russell Wong - Romeo Must Die), and is joined by Zhu Bajie(Pigsy)(Eddie Marsan - 21 Grams, Vera Drake) and Sha Wujing (Friar Sand) (Kabir Bedi - Octopussy) to save the book and save the world. It is almost a Wizard of Oz adventure, as they all have personal issues to resolve in addition to the mission.

Of course, Kuan Yin (Bai Ling) appears any time he utters a prayer. Thankfully, for the many appearance of Bai Ling make this film worth watching. She is usually in another spectacular costume each time she appears.

Besides spectacular costumes, the sets were lavishly decorated. The special effects were magnificent, and the martial arts displays exciting.

It was overly long, but most great adventures are. Anyway. that is more time to watch Bai Ling.