What I didn’t realize is that a large chunk of the movie was going to be in an Agatha Christie-style whodunnit. Which I don’t mind at all, but the fact that they were all stuck in the palace setting for all that time was a little underwhelming. It just did not feel very expansive—and unbalanced. I wanted it to be less insular, and I think that still would have been possible without it being too long and complicated. It's like, they did not give me a reason to care that the Imperial City was being attacked. The writers just relied on viewers to come into it with "big monster attacking city bad" and not have to do any establishing work there.

I watched it in two sittings. It took me a long time to care about the characters, but I wasn't ever disinterested in figuring out what was happening. It's definitely not a favorite, and I would only rewatch it if a friend wanted to, but I don't regret watching it...The two lead actors were good and and seeing their characters’ dynamic progress an hour into the movie was finally what engaged me. They definitely set it up for a potential sequel at the end--but based on the narrative of this film, I would want to watch it for the two main characters rather than a rematch with the giant monster snake or whatever. I would definitely love to see more of them working together and learning more about the lore of this world in a more engaging way that leaves me rooting for them and knowing exactly why and what I'm rooting for.