Quick disclaimer: I have never read the original novel or known anything about this prior to the movie.

For a movie like this, you don't necessarily watch it for a surprise twist (although there were a couple that I didn't see coming). Probably because this movie is based on an old and famous novel, these are tons of stories that have this kind of storyline nowadays, so it was fairly easy to predict what was going to happen. The scenes in general can be on-the-nose about their messages.

BUT! I was totally okay with that because I was still able to enjoy the movie. All the actors were fantastic. The sets were incredible. The CGI was really incredible (and I was told that some stuff wasn't even CGI, but done by the makeup department). So, you can tell how grand this movie was and how much money, labor, and effort was spent on it.

I want to especially stressed the acting. If the actors were not world-class level, this movie would not have been so emotionally moving. Even though the messages of this story were pretty simple, it was taken to another level thanks to especially the four main actors--Mark, Allen, Olivia, and Wang Duo. They were perfect.