I'd say the first 1/2 of the film is really excellent. Lots of underground adventure - tombs, monsters, evil traps, etc. Then, the last 1/2 was vaguely understandable and cool. I mean, I understand what happened in the end - I'm just not quite sure about all the pieces and why things worked that way. Maybe it's just me?
Plenty of suspense and action. NOT however really much about tomb raiders at all. To me, the description was really misleading
My plot would be something like:
The 1900s were a time of discovery and new insight into the ancient past as more and more secrets are dug up from the ancient tombs. But sometimes one can dig too deep. When Hu Ba Yi steps up to explore a mysterious occurrence deep underneath the Kunlun Mountains, he could never have predicted the adventure that awaits him. In a desperate battle to save humanity from an ancient evil long buried, Hu Ba Yi and his friends will have to unravel the mystery behind what happened in the past and how to prevent it from repeating itself in the future.
To be honest, this was more of a mixture between some sort of 30% "lost world" / "Jurrasic Park" and 50% "Riddick" and 20% an Indiana Jones movie. It's got tombs and supernatural stuff and all that. Which was awesome - It really wasn't about tomb raiders or tomb raiding. Definitely no buried treasures and Certainly not comparable or similar to The Lost Tomb, Mystic Nine or the other dramas supposedly based on this book series.
Still a lot of historical background, mythology, action, and cool "underground" scenes. I'm not saying don't watch it, it's got merit on its own for what it is - just know the description doesn't really fit. The Candle in the Tomb, this is not. It wasn't meant to be - so I'm not sure why it is described like that.
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Mark Chao as Hu Ba Yi in a somewhat confusing Kunlun Advernture
This review is written by someone who has not read any of the books.The movie starts with some background of chronological order in which things happen:-
1934 Dragon Corpse found
1956 Underground Palace Unearthed
1972 "Ageless" female mummy discovered
1974 Ancient fossils found in Kunlun mountain, there's an explosion, expedition sent that discovers Kunlun Shrine. Hu Ba Yi is the only survivor losing the expedition leader Professor Yang and his daughter Yang Ping.
1979 Hu Ba Yi goes to try find the Yang Ping who is back but renamed "Shirley"
The first half of this movie is about why they went to the Kunlun Shrine, what its mysteries are, why it's remained hidden all these years and what secrets are involved. Once the backstory is finally told, the second half of the movie changes into a basic survival vs. monsters (demons) movie which wasn't very interesting.
What's good - great acting by a handsome male lead as Mark Chao plays Hu Ba Yi as someone you not only can root for, but actually I'd want to be rescued by him because he is that good looking. The other actors do a credible job too. The special effects and action are top notch.
What's not so good - the second half had some exposition which was rather confusing as they kind of melded elements from Candle In the Tomb and made a right big mess of Shirley / Professor Yang's daughter Yang Ping's story, to the extent it is a mess and doesn't line up at all with the Candle In the Tomb series, or the Mojin movies. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure if this is a Mojin series movie since it doesn't actually have the word Mojin in the title.
This is more of a Creature Feature with maybe 10% tomb raiding in it, so not the best of the movies.
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