Asian Movie Review: Sorcerer and The White Snake (白蛇傳說, 2011)

Went to catch the new Jet Li picture 'Sorcerer and the White Snake' (horribly titled 'Its Love' in English in the China market) at the theater tonight while I had a chance.

It's a fantasy film based on the traditional Chinese folk take of the White Snake....  a snake demon who falls in love with a human and battles against a monk who tries to break up their unholy domestic partnership.

That's the story... but where to begin on a review of this film?  Is it a good film?  no, its not.  Did I enjoy watching it?  yes I did.

Despite this being a 3D movie,  for some reason the theater I ended up going to was only showing the 2D version... which is probably for the best....  i'm sure the 3D gets annoying after a while too.  So perhaps I was better off with the 2D version. :-P

First of all the film is extremely reliant on CG.... but the CG quality (at least when watched in 2D) is pretty bad at times...   like 10 years ago level in most of the scenes?  Actually while I was watching it I was thinking: "You know the CG in 'Dr. Wai and the Scripture With No Words' was not that much worse than the CG in this film..." (but Dr. Wai aka 冒險王came out 15 years ago!)

But that's not the only problem with the film... I'd say the biggest fault is that this film doesn't know what it's supposed to be... a tragedy, a comedy, a super natural fantasy... a horror film....  or a family friendly movie.  In fact it tries to do all of them.... at once... with predictably poor results.   Director Ching Siu-Tung (程小東) apparently was taking a page or two from the 'Making a Blockbuster film For Dummies' book.... (written by George Lucas) with his choice to include some 'kid friendly' characters in for comic relief.... in a film which is in otherwise in no way appropriate for kids... I won't even spoil it by telling you how that happens....  your jaw will drop when see how attempt to 'Jar-Jar Binks' up this film appears.

But let's talk about the positives....  Eva Huang and Charlene Choi play the two mischievous snake demons (White Snake and Green Snake)...    they frolick around naked with no male snakes around, so they end up toying with humans for kicks.

Eva is quite captivating: Eva's fellow lead, Raymond Lam, is pretty wooden and uninteresting.... there's not a lot of character development in this film,  but Raymond has even less than everyone else. Jet Li plays the Buddhist Monk who's basically the Chinese traditional version of a Ghostbuster...  he uses a PKE meter-equivalent device to detect ghosts and then he catches them (in a magic stone, not a ghost trap), then loads them into a magic version of the GB's 'Ecto Containment Unit').

Actual quote from the film: "I ain't afraid of no ghosts!"

This was the funniest part of the film I think.  Foxy demons! :-P

The action is entertaining and there's enough to satisfy, but be forewarned its all 'wire-fu' or 'CG-fu'.... very little real fighting action. 

Bottom line - entertaining, works decently as a romance and in some parts as a comedy.  But hindered by crappy 3D CG and 1D characters.... and a talking bunny rabbit who does not belong in a film filled with bat demons and shapeshifter snake women.

But thanks to Eva Huang (Jet Li),  it gets a 6/10 from me!