This movie is a contemporary take on the classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West," which is a fictionalized account of the legends around the Buddhist monk Xuánzàng's pilgrimage to India during the Táng dynasty in order to obtain Buddhist religious texts called sutras.The ministers have imprisoned the writer of the book, and are attempting to destroy it to reverse time back to traditional Chinese life, i.e. before any modernization. The modern world will be destroyed unless The Scholar From Above (Thomas Gibson) can enter the underworld and save it.Don't make any mistake. Gibson would not have taken one step except for the fact that he was following the luscious Bai Ling, who anyone would follow to the gates of Hell.He rescues Sun Wukong the Monkey King (Russell Wong - Romeo Must Die), and is joined by Zhu Bajie(Pigsy)(Eddie Marsan - 21 Grams, Vera Drake) and Sha Wujing (Friar Sand) (Kabir Bedi - Octopussy) to save the book and save the world. It is almost a Wizard of Oz adventure, as they all have personal issues to resolve in addition to the mission.Of course, Kuan Yin (Bai Ling) appears any time he utters a prayer. Thankfully, for the many appearance of Bai Ling make this film worth watching. She is usually in another spectacular costume each time she appears.Besides spectacular costumes, the sets were lavishly decorated. The special effects were magnificent, and the martial arts displays exciting.It was overly long, but most great adventures are. Anyway. that is more time to watch Bai Ling.

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.

the worst movie i have seen so far in my life. it was the worst scenografy that have occured in this century.. i hope that the director dont produce any more movies of that sort. the thing that sucked most was all the stunts not one looked real

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!