The Lost Empire (2001)

Recap: Chinese scholar Nicholas Orton is most unhappy. His wife has left him and he feel like he has betrayed himself by taking a position with a tourism corporate that wish to turn relics into a tourist attraction. But one night he is whisked away by a Chinese goddess. The world is threatened. Oppressive demons are trying to erase the story "The Journey into the West" from history and by doing so erase free will in the human world. Only Nick can save the world by going on a peculiar quest.Comments: A movie made for TV it tries to enter a land of magic and fantasy. However it seems to suffer from a meager budget as the special effects lack in quality. But not enough money can't explain a bad story. I am not familiar with the original story or myth but as it is presented in this movie it is childish, simple-minded and quite boring.The characters are stereotypic, arrogant and also childish in appearance. The monkey king resembles a human, that's true. But Pigsy, however true to the original story, is just too much. A walking, talking pig that can't resist eating all the time. He is worst, but every other character is almost as simple-minded and shallow as him. Or why people keep on driving as they crash through market stands just because the red light disappeared (because no one would ever use the brakes if the traffic lights weren't there? Sigh).Also the story is easily predictable, but not only predictable. Boring. Who will fall in love with whom, what someone will do when he is challenged and so on. When the story is too simple, the effects doesn't support the magic elements in the story and the characters are too shallow, the entire story becomes hard to believe in. Not accept as truth, but to believe in its own context. It doesn't carry it's own weight. It doesn't even seem the characters or actors believe in it.Why it must run then for more than two and a half hour is beyond me. If it can't develop some chemistry in an hour, two doesn't make it better. Only worse.2/10

An excellent blending of the classical stories of the Monkey King and his friends with the modern world.Whenever a movie is made that attempts to blend classical stories with the modern world you have to give it the benefit of the doubt. The feel of the movie is much more important than the neatly pulling together points from the classical stories by Wu. The Lost Empire (Recently released on the Sci Fi channel as "The Monkey King". Does an excellent job of tying the intent and overall feel of the 4 books of the "Journey" saga into the modern world.For those who like to nit pick movies like this one, they should realize that there is not a classical Chinese movie made which holds up to scrutiny versus the original texts. Movies just are not supposed to be a replacement for reading. This movie does a very good job of giving the feel of the old movies a more than passing homage. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Fantasy and Classical Chinese stories.

Now I doubt many westerners are familiar with the Chinese novel Journey to the West or with the legendary Chinese character of the Monkey King. So for the uninitiated this might be an interesting story with interesting characters. But despite the fact that they used some Chinese actors and actresses there is a hallow ring to this TV movie. It all seems staged to appeal to Americans and doesn't honestly follow the legends of the original Chinese texts. The casting could have been better. It would have been nice if they picked an actor with more depth than Thomas Gibson for the Nicolas Orton role. The probably chose Gibson for his popularity on network television at the time (in Dharma and Greg) instead of auditioning someone else for the role. Bai Ling is a spectacular woman to look at and a very good actress. She tries her best but she would have been better served if they wrote a better script and gave more emphasis to Chinese authenticity.

This is like a post-modern take on the legend of the Monkey King, where a modern human gets involved with saving the book that contains the original story. First of all, it is FUN!There are lots of interesting characters, lots of action, heroic characters fighting the Good Fight... what more do you want?Just keep in mind that this is NOT the original legend(s) - whatever those were about - and it doesn't even try to be, so don't criticize it for that.This is good old-fashioned entertainment, with lots of imagination and heroics. Enjoy!