The Thousand Faces of Dunjia (2017)

Was this movie entertaining? For me, yes. Was the story a mess? Also, yes.

This movie felt like a Frankenstein's monster of movie ideas that the writer even lost track of-flying guillotines (1975 movie), a compass that doesn't point north (Pirates of the Caribbean), Fire Benders and Water Benders, a Tiger Gargoyle(?), and as always in these types of movies there's a glowing orb of destiny. Finally, I honestly thought at one point they might quote, "One ring to rule them all and in the darkness bind them." (LOTR) Making everything more confusing because of new censor requirements the writer had to do some writing gymnastics to not use mythological characters making the monsters wanting to take over the world aliens instead. This movie included a lot of CGI characters. There might have been a love triangle or square but that was also not made clear.

The cast was very likeable and did a good job with what they had to work with. Ridiculous as it seems, I enjoyed the ride they took me on even if I didn't understand it half the time. Fortunately, the movie focused more on the human characters than on the creatures. The story all boiled down to the old end of the world ploy that the band of heroes had to find a way to divert. Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination but not completely worthless in terms of entertainment value either.

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