First of all, I'm not Chinese native. Since this movie was released only in mainland China, it's like impossible to find the Eng sub, so I might miss some words/info of the movie with my 'intermediate' Chinese. But, I still can understand the overall story.
This movie is adapted from the novel and its series... Yes, Series. So, we all can guess that this movie will have a fast-pace storyline. But, the problem is, the series has so many episodes and even seasons. The beginning-to-mid pace is so messy and too fast, you need 100% focus to understand it if you haven't known anything about Yi Ren Zhi Xia.
The CGI is ok, but consideredly a bit poor for nowadays. The soundtracks are often feel disturbing and too loud for some scenes. So many characters that just popped out from nowhere or gave only small impact for the story (poor character development) And one of the biggest problem is, Cinematography. This is so unfortunate since Chinese movies had the reputation of an amazing fight cinematography, even the western learned from them. But this movie's? Unnatural! And again, in the end, there are still so many plot holes that are not explained and become questions for viewers.
But, I have to admit that around mid-to-end, the pace started to get tidy and comfortable to follow. The actings are actually good (and some are great), but I see there are many viewers complaining that the actors choice is not suitable with the original novel/series, but I think it's not a big problem, since acting/making its character alive is more important. Also, the comedy and fight are actually still pretty entertaining and fun to watch. I suggest, just don't give high expectations and compare it to its series which has a longer and deeper story... Let this movie stands alone.
Eventually, I'd say that it's already a mistake that this movie was made, not suitable if adapted from a long-term story. So, overall this movie is just plain, not good nor bad, I can't really recommend this movie, but if you have a lot of free time and just want to watch something to entertain you (and you know Chinese :)), this is still ok.
