L'empire du roi-singe

The Lost Empire, or The Monkey King, as it was called when I saw it on the Hallmark Network, is a silly film, but a very enjoyable one. It attempts to put a new spin on the Chinese classic, Journey to the West, which tells the story of how a monk went on an epic journey to recover some sacred scriptures, aided by the mischievous Monkey King, the gluttonous Pigsy and the sombre Sandy.

In this modern version the companions are the same, but the monk is replaced by a modern American sinologist, and the "scripture" is the original manuscript of Journey to the West itself, which is about to be destroyed by the "five traditional masters", who represent the forces of conservatism. Confused? It gets worse; if the book is destroyed, all the human progress that has taken place since the book was written will be reversed and the world will revert to feudalism. To cap it all, the Jade Emperor, Confucius and Kuan Yin, the goddess of compassion, are all weighing in.

With a scenario like this, the film cannot help but being absurd in places, but the absurdity, intentional or otherwise, is part of the fun, as it was in the original Journey to the West, which is a comedy as well as an analogy of the spiritual journey. Viewers who have read Journey to the West will enjoy the references to it; others can sit back and enjoy the visual richness, which as well as some spectacular scenes and SFX, includes Bai Ling as Kuan Yin, looking far more sexy than a goddess of compassion ought to (but then that's one of the twists in this tale as well).

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.

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.

This movie is an insult to the beautiful historical classic work from Wu Cheng'en. It brutally involves theme's that do not fit at all with the story line. Such as a Caucasian man falling in love the Goddess of Mercy and she falling in love with him. Even though, in order to make one movie out a of a 3 volume work, selecting only parts from the book is necessary. This movie has misunderstood the meaning of the book and used elements to make it a sad abstract of the novel. He has gone past the key element of the book: the enlightenment, the search for the Way from five totally different characters, each representing an element of human nature. The Tang priest, Sun Wukong the monkey, lazy and clumsy Pig, hideous Friar Sand and the Dragon sun, changed into a white horse. It has wiped out every Buddhist element from the story, while that's the backbone of this book. How he ridiculed key figures from Chinese history and culture (Quan Yin, Confucius) and not even in a adult and serious way.

This movie does by no means represent the wonderful Chinese Classic `Journey to the West', or literally `Notes of a Journey to the West' and you may have already figured out that I was sadly disappointed with it.

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.