[Review] Creation Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms (7.5/10) {Feng Shen Di Yi Bu: Zhao Ge Feng Yun}

 

Title - Creation Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms {Feng Shen Di Yi Bu: Zhao Ge Feng Yun} 
Production - Tencent Pictures, Beijing Culture, Mongketengri Pictures
Starring - Yu Shi, Narana Erdyneeva, Kris Phillips, Huang Bo, Li Xue Jian, Luke Chen, Wang Luo Yong, Xu Chong, Yang Da Peng, Eric Le Yang, Wu Ya Fan, Ci Sha, Yuan Quan
Writer - Ran Ping, Ran Jia Nan
Director - Wuershan
Release : 22 September 2023

I had so much hesitation going into this movie. I don't have a lot of experience with movies from China, but Hong Kong big CGI flicks with their horrible dubbing have given movies in Chinese a bad reputation in my book. So I was very pleasantly surprised to see, even such a big scale movie was very properly done.

This movie was being compared to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. I thought this must be a joke. After watching it, there's a bit of an argument as to why. For one, it's the world building and scope, with a rich story as its driving force.

Immediately what I did not enjoy about the movie was the way it introduced characters - putting their names and who their father was during their first spoken line, they popped up and disappeared too quickly for my brain to capture because there was no context, unless you are already familiar with these characters.

And of course, the CGI was nowhere near the quality of Lord Of The Rings, though it did come close to The Hobbit's quality. 

What I appreciated was how those parts of the story that the movie chose to focus on were given its due. The dialogue were well written and the scenes were not rushed. But then again, some scenes really didn't have to linger, hence contributed to the long running time.

I'm also very impressed with how the director created big scenes that almost felt epic because that was what it was going for. Think more of how Marvel Studios assembled the Avengers in the "Battle of New York" and less of DC's cheesy Aquaman posing with the trident.

But most importantly, the actors were really good. None of the over-acting and over-directing like typical Hong Kong blockbusters. I am looking forward to the rest of the trilogy. Although, one thing they need to fix is that green monster's CGI look at the end of this movie.