Guai wu xian sheng

This is just like the book Monster by A.Lee Martinez , same concept .

I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the 2020 Chinese action fantasy movie "Guai Wu Xian Sheng" (aka "Monster Run") here in 2022. I hadn't heard about the movie prior to watching it, so I really didn't have much of any expectations to director Henri Wong's movie.

Writers Wenwen Fan, Yahe Wang, Henri Wong, Alex Zhang and Disa Zhang managed to put together an adequate enough storyline and script here. The plot in the movie was actually not that bad, but could have benefitted from a bit of trimming around the edges. The storyline in the movie made for an enjoyable enough movie experience.

The acting performances in the movie were good, though I was a bit surprised to see the likes of Shawn Yue in a movie such as this. I was not familiar with leading actress Jessie Li, but she was actually carrying the movie quite well.

Visually then I will say that this was a good movie. They definitely had great CGI effects on the screen to bring the world alive. It looked good and worked well in favor of the movie. I also liked the creature design, to an extend that is. While the creature designs were interesting and had good CGI, the movie sort of fluxed between it being a kids movie and a movie for a more mature audience. Why? Well, because in some scenes the creatures were cartoonish and looked comical, while in others they were fierce and hellbent on devouring the character Ji Mo (played by Jessie Li).

This was a movie that made for an easy viewing experience; you just simply unhook your brain, lean back and munch on the snacks, and enjoy the fast-paced monster action on the screen. However, this is hardly a movie that warrants more than a single viewing.

My rating of "Guai Wu Xian Sheng" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Honestly, the monsters have some of the most compelling designs I've seen in a long time; I was reminded of the first time I saw the original Hellboy movie. The dimension loop scene also reminded me heavily of Inception, and I'm not sure I've ever seen something quite like that specific cinematography before.

Over an hour into the movie, my excitement over the design wore off when I realized there was never going to be an actual plot. The entire movie runs on a story that could be completely described in less than a paragraph. Almost no worldbuilding, no character development to be seen ANYWHERE, and nothing in the dialogue that will be worth remembering later.

Honestly, I want people to watch this movie to enjoy the design and support the crew who put their all into making a garbage story look this good. Maybe watch it dubbed in a language you don't speak and turn off the subtitles; it won't affect the quality of the movie to not understand the words.

This is an enjoyable movie with great CGI. The story is a little weak and the ending even weaker. There are parts of it that stretch out too long and some parts that aren't fleshed out, but it's a decent romp. There are worse action films out there.

Even though it was the typical "girl needs saving, boy needs self-confidence" movie, I enjoyed the monsters and the different take on this type of story. I thought that the monsters were pretty imaginative. Worth a one-time watch, even at 3am. 5.5/10