Reviews

This movie misses the mark on so many fronts. First of all, shot in a region of China that is currently the victim of cultural genocide by the CCP. Then, completely ignores the cultural myths of ancient China. Forr example, there is no Phoenix in cultural China myth. Disney really missed out on this one, trying to appease Chinese and non-Chinese audiences.

This movie fell flat for me. It seemed to be mostly filled with isolated scary scenes that didn't all tie together to one coherent plot line. Some scenes just didn't make any sense and not connected to the story. The setting was quite good, and some scenes were visually spectacular. But the movie itself just didn't do anything for me

... I just didn't. 20 minutes in I wanted it to end and didn't care about how it finished. So disappointed after Get Out. I lost the plot, lost the soul, and never really wanted to know how it finished. hard to pinpoint what really set it off the rails, but just don't understand how this is 7.4 stars. I gave it three. I love his first movie, so I'm all in for his next movie and look forward to it. He is very talented filmmaker, but this one just fell flat for me.

This movie is the worst of the worst of the Thor series. Because it has run out of ideas and storylines, it has to rely and quirky little jokes, one-liners, puns, and silly scenes to carry the film.

I hated to see such great actors coming together in a pretty bad movie. The plot was silly and some of the characters were overdone and equally silly (Poppy). The Elton cameo was good for the first scene then was way over done. So many things wrong after a pretty good first movie. Please don't make another one.

This movie could have been better. Jean Reno and Andy Lau play good roles, but the rest of the cast and acting was just so-so. Some great location vistas and a lot of good action. But the writing was stale and in some cases way too obvious. Some of the dialogue and plot build up was too predictable. The high-tech gadgetry tried to be Bond-like or MI-like, but it was too contrived in parts. Overall, not a bad movie, but a bit stale, predictable with an otherwise competent cast and plot.

As far as action movies go, this was pretty good. Director Wu put a lot of time and energy in this and it pays off. The fight scenes, chases, and suspense was well done and the movie never seemed to stop the action. Acting was not Oscar winning but sufficient. Throughout the movie is interspersed China feel-good themes that even Beijing would be happy with... national pride, respect of China from others, participant in international law, etc. But what country doesn't have their own feel-good flicks? US certainly has their share. Overall a big improvement from the first movie. Not sure this movie will be popular outside China but maybe that doesn't matter.

It seems this movie will be highly-rated and well-liked by the HP and JKR fandom. And in that regards, it probably was a very good movie. But having been a fan but not fanatic of the HP series, I found this movie a mostly boring offshoot of the same. Yes, I see the ties to HP, foreshadowing, etc. but the plot, dialogue, characters, even some of the effects fell flat for me. And I do enjoy effects-rich movies, as long as they support and don't overshadow good characters and good story-lines. But this movie had neither. It never hooked me in to wanting to discover. I think JKRowling is an excellent author, and I did enjoy the HP books more than the movies because they're richer, deeper, and I felt more immersed in that world. And though I did not read this book, perhaps it's a better read than film. I find it hard to believe this will be a 5-part movie series, but there is probably enough momentum with JKR and HP fans to keep it going.

This movie was pretty awful on so many levels. First, Diesel seems to sleep walk through his lines and scenes. The slight tilt of the head and cute smirk got old after the first 5 minutes. Donnie Yen's fight scenes were really good, and that's about the best this film brings. The writing was atrocious. The snarky, too-cute and cliché lines at every turn. I didn't know if I was watching a movie or reading the one-liner comebacks from a comedy show. It's too bad because this movie had a good cast. Toni Colette needs to stick to heavier roles; she looked out of place in this role. And more Samuel Jackson. I've been hoping for better films to come out of the new China-owned studios, but so many have disappointed lately. Maybe Jet Li could have saved this film, I'm not sure.

I will agree the individual segments were good. Well directed and (mostly) well acted. I was hooked for the first 60% of the film. The lake scene began to lose me because I thought the acting was sub-par compared to the first part of the film and I was looking for connections with the previous segments.

Overall, the film needs a connection among all of the segments...all of the "tapes". But I never found one. The house the burglars break in to , with all the TVs and tapes and the dead guy was not enough to connect everything.

Individual segments were mostly well-done and well directed. Scary, creepy, and with some innovative concepts of horror. But, overall, I didn't get a sense that the film was one whole story. It seems just a random group of "This would be cool if..." segments vaguely strung together with the guys in the house.

So, I give it 5 stars. I think it could be better, and it had moments that hooked me.