Journey To The West: Conquering the Demons

An apprentice demon hunter struggles to perfect his art in a series of battles against evil monsters and rival demon hunters, including one who has fallen in love with him. It's a pretty typical Stephen Chow comedy with lots of slapstick and bathroom humor mixed with outrageous sequences of CGI-heavy fantasy martial arts. Show me another movie featuring Shu Qi making demons explode with her jewelry.

It figures that the highest grossing Chinese film of all time should be a prequel to Journey to the West, the most beloved story of Chinese culture. Chow manages to use CGI to create something like a live action cartoon, and once you get used to the wild shifts in tone common to Chinese cinema, the great visual imagination and rapid pacing are a lot of fun.

Not as good or enjoyable as Kung Fu Hustle, but it's pretty close. Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons has plenty of interesting characters, cheesy visual effects, an impressive production design, and an awesome sense of humor to entertain and at least interest a given viewer. Fans of the genre will not be disappointed.

Genuinely charming despite-or, more likely, because of-its sketchy CGI, genre-hopping, and bizarre plot. Hilarious, poignant, brutal, and always its own film. Quite enjoyable.

Another masterpiece from Stephen Chow. I love his action/comedy films and this one is especially good because it retells an old take using great filmmaking. The cast was awesome. The main character Chen is funny in a simple way. Shu Qi was funny, sexy, and endearing. The guy who played the monkey king was also a showstopper. I would definitely watch this movie again. Hell! I'll probably end up buying it.

I am not familiar with the myths behind this, but maybe it made it fresher and more interesting, and the movie explained just enough one doesn't feel lost because of that. The CGI is ugly, but one can look past it easily. The characters are interesting and all have their personality, some out of the ordinary in a good way. The comedic side is fun too, some gags are funny. One recognizes Chow's style too

Spirited romp that bears its emotional burden a little too lightly.

While Chow has made funnier movies, this one still had some really great comedic moments. What makes this pretty awesome is the fact that it can be cheesy at the same time that it's a pretty big spectacle; it can be funny and over the top but there's a sprinkle of genuine emotion here. Qi Shu may not technically be the main character, but she's the star here. Fans of the genre will like it, it won't bring over non-fans.

Certainly not the worst Stephen Chow film but it's also far from his best. I rate this about the same as A Chinese Odyssey parts 1&2.

Stephen Chow's latest offering combines a trendy Chinese mythological setting with an almost postmodern rom-com plot, and a scattering of his trademark madcap humour which is sadly very much scaled back compared to his wackiest masterpieces like God of Cookery or Shaolin Soccer. His two leads are likeable and the childish plot eventually makes some sense. But has Chow traded in his unique comedic voice for big-budget scale and spectacle? We can only hope that his next one restores that balance.

It takes a lot of liberties with the original story but the liberties they took made for a pretty interesting product. The movie starts off with a thrilling scene of a small fishing village combating Sha Wujing, and it keeps up the momentum with more exciting fights with charming characters and comedy. My main gripe with the film is that the conclusion feels really rushed and half-assed - so after Buddha crushes Wukong, all of a sudden he and the other demons are journeying west? What the hell?

Being a westerner and not familiar with any of the legends I still found this an entertaining romp. The effects are quite well done and very fantastical which is good. The action scenes are also well done and inventive, so another plus. I personally think the film would have been much better if the goofy humour was toned down a tad.

The bad cgi really made it hard to like alot of the fight scenes. The first half of the movie was pretty awesome though, but the monkey king was too crappy lookin

I adore Stephen Chow but I was really disappointed by this movie. It was far too uneven and lacked any feeling of momentum from one scene to the next. There was no suspense. I will say that the film, as a whole, is quite funny and has gotten me interested in the Monkey King mythology, so it's certainly not all bad.

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The goofball slapstick Stephen Chow is know for is contrasted with a desire to go serious and a bit darker. That's kind of a problem, because the two urges don't really compliment each other. It's hard to laugh when a wacky see saw gag is right after a little girl getting killed.

An interesting hybrid of horror, fantasy, and comedy. If you don't like the first scene that much, stick around because it does get better.

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Just simply a great entertainment. You've got to love a hero who is so good-hearted that his text for fighting demons is a child's song book.

This one I actually found kind of strange. It's as mean as other Chow films but the goofiness doesn't quite match up with it correctly and some gags end up feeling kind of misplaced or dissonant.

It has some weird scenes that go on for too long and hurt the pacing quite a bit, but Chow's cartoon-ish action makes up for it.

Entertainment: 4.5/4. Spirit: 2/3. Sustainability: 0/3.

JOURNEY TO THE WEST is a freewheeling supernatural fairy tale that mixes broad, Hollywood-style blockbuster plotting with an idiosyncratic goofiness that is fascinating to behold as a Western viewer. Stephen Chow's populist slapstick still generates consistent payoffs, even as the film labors to cram in all of its cross-genre elements, including a romantic subplot that's surprisingly randy for a family adventure. Ignore the unfortunate CG effects, and pay attention to the incredible wigs.

chow goes back to making flicks that are nearly indecipherable to people from any other cultures than chinese. starts off great with a lot of humor and then he pours it on heavy. not well-versed enough in their mythology to know what the hell was going on, but even still the last 1/4th of the movie was nowhere near as fun as what preceded and brought the whole thing wayyy down

I still think that Qi Shu is a super underrated actress and one of the most gorgeous people on the planet... Regardless, this film was a great blend of action and comedy, with a heartfelt romance at its core. I feel like Joss Whedon needs to watch this if he wants to understand how to take a substantial cast and balance humor with thrill, and intimate moments with large spectacle, because this movie is a solid example of how to do that incredibly well. This film is still campy, but charming.

delightfully bizarre and filled with plenty of moments you'll laugh at and maybe even think about

Absurd and funny but exciting action scenes and some funny scenes. no sign of depth of buddha's philosophy. but very fun to watch

I'm a sometime fan of Stephen Chow so I gave this a go and stopped quarter of an hour in bored out of my mind. I decided to check criticker to see if it gets better and apparently the first half is the funniest. Oh well

Possibly the best Stephen Chow film yet, with the sprawling feeling of the best martial arts films.

Starts off well--at least in terms of action and suspense. Chow's comedy is normally charming, but it felt a bit flat for me (although I suspect teenagers would probably enjoy this). The one character using nursery rhymes to "combat" demons was a potentially interesting premise, but the film goes nowhere with this--as it does with other subplots. You could say the film got lost on the journey.

fun. worth it.