Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

dcarsonhagy The Monkey King (Part 2) just didn't cut it for me. First of all, Donnie Yen (who played the Monkey King in the first installment) had been replaced with another actor who did not have the charisma, charm, nor the acting chops. His performance came across as stiff and forced, while I thought Donnie Yen was wonderful.However, not all was a total loss for Part 2. The gorgeous and very talented Gong Li played the White-Bone Demon with as much panache as you would ever want. She is absolutely beautiful and demands attention while she is on screen. The cinematography was a step above most movies of this genre. The scenery is just breath taking. I did think Part 2 had a little more action than the first film. However, the first film was more about the legend of the Monkey King, and as stated before, Donnie Yen was just magical in the role.Rated PG-13 for some mild violence.

jasonlock-11608 I really enjoyed it, it was a fun action fantasy romp, and I love the various Journey to the West stories. I didn't see the first Monkey King, it had such poor reviews so I didn't bother. Anyway, Monkey King 2 completely feels like its' own entity, it is a different story from the book and the Monkey King origin story has been told many times before. Aaron Kwok is a delight to watch. I can't say how he compared to Donnie Yen but he's so lovable. It's FUN, often funny. Gong Li is very hammy, and couldn't chew the scenery more, but it's within the tone of the film. It really is a riveting family adventure from start to finishIt contains the usual overabundance of CG which all these Chinese blockbusters have, but the quality isn't awful this time! Much better than some of the video-game level effects I've seen recently in others. There is a lot of practical wire-work amidst the wash of particle effects and glowy things. Most importantly, the charisma of the stars shines through it.I saw this on a trip to China, I don't know if it received, or will receive a release in the West, but it should. It will probably turn up in the Netflix graveyard at some point. It's better than most cookie- cutter American fantasy blockbusters, with, of course due to the nature of the source text, much better lessons and values sitting underneath the action than 'yet another Hero's Journey story' as Hollywood pumps out again and again.

gregsachoff Love the movie. Thought it was entertaining and my kids wanted to see it again. But we all agree Donnie Yen was a better choice for The Monkey King / Sun Wu Kong The Monkey King Havoc in Heaven's Palace was our first choice and favorite among the two so far. Havoc in Heaven's Palace seem to have more story structure and the kids liked the characters better and loved the historical fight scenes with Donnie Yen's Character. My wife seemed to like the most the musical score of the film and we purchased the soundtrack in which we listen to quite often.My Kids also each wanted there own Blu-Ray in which I purchased for all three of them. With anything the first is always the better of the two but recommend both.

subxerogravity I know the Monkey King is a huge thing in China. I herd about it before and have see the American adaption, the Forbidden Kingdom, with Jet Li as the Monkey king.This movie was visually bad ass. I loved the design of the title character. All the CGI actually worked to make the movie feel very big and very epic. It makes me wish it was released in IMAX here in the States, not just in 3D. The final battle in the movie was mind blowing.But I just did not get into the tale of the Monkey King. I don't know why this story is so popular and the movie did nothing to change this thought. It was suppose to be funny in certain places, but I did not get it and it just seem that a lot of things were happen just to produce a cool special effect for it, not to drive any story.It was fun to look at but not the most compelling story, speaking as someone unfamiliar with the story being told