Review: Phew, it was really hard to sum up the plot of this film, and looking at it, i see that I hardly did. That is not to say that it is hard to understand, but it is because reflecting on it, I realized a whole hell of a lot just happened in an hour and a half. First off, I’ll sum up the movie’s style as easily as possible, to put it in terms most people will understand. A Chinese Odyssey is like taking the effects and fantasy atmosphere of the ‘83 Zu movie, and adding Stephen Chow to fall on his ass alot. Luckily, this works out well, and Chow actually does a lot more than fall down and run into things in this movie. But at the same time, this may turn people off.

You see, this movie isn’t really what I expected from Chow. It is not at all rolling on the floor funny, but it has it’s moments. The good effect this had, though, is that it makes the jokes in the movie seem funnier since the film is not oversaturated with them. The emphasis seems to be more on the story and action than the humor, which works in it’s favor, because there is a lot of story to tell. There are a good deal of characters to keep track of, which results in almost too much name-dropping. You have to make sure you know who the people are and their relationships to each other. It’s not too tough, but if your attention span wavers, you may have trouble differentiating your Longevity Monk from your Boney M.

Just by those two names, you can probably tell that the characters are pretty out there. Stephen Chow pulls a double role by playing both the Monkey King and his reincarnated (or is that incarnated, since he wasn’t alive?) human form, Joker. Any fans of the famous Chinese legend of the Journey West will be familiar with the Monkey King, and will be delighted to see Chow portray him as the bad ass he should be. And he is still very enjoyable to watch even though your sides won’t be splitting as much as in other Chow movies. I think I have gotten to the point where I like Chow so much that seeing him in any role is fun for me to watch. He could play a limbless mute and I would still think he was a comedic genius. Thankfully, Ng Man Tat is up in this Chow flick holdin’ it down. I definitely consider those two the dynamic duo of HK comedy. The costumes used in this movie are pretty solid as well, and don’t come off as too cheesy or stupid. That’s saying alot considering they had to portray a huge spider with a woman’s head, as well as a giant Bull King. It all adds to the epic feel of the movie.

But as epic as it was, I couldn’t help but feel that a few scenes may have dragged on for a bit too long. Advancing the story is one thing, but some scenes seem like they could have done the same thing in two minutes that they did in ten. It all comes together well as a whole package more so than having any real awe inspiring individual moments. There are some really creative effects, and the last twenty minutes or so of the movie are just plain awesome. This was where the Pandora’s Box came into play, and probably where I laughed the most. I won’t explain it because it’s really the icing on the cake. This combined with an ending that directly leads into the second film make it very memorable. There is a great preview of the sequel after the credits roll, and this reminded me alot of the Back to the Future movies, which always offered glimpses into the next movie at the end of each film.