That was an excellent one.

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Best movie ever!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is simply the best movie ever, the updated version of Journey to the West, mixing the modern world with that of the literary past of the Journey to the West leads to a wonderful telling of a brand new tale.Bai Ling truly makes you feel that she is the goddess Kwan Yin. Thomas Gibson plays a wonderful westerner who's love for Asian culture gets thrown to a whole new level! The humorous illustration of Confucius corrupted from what he believe thousands of years ago by living in the land of the gods was super enjoyable.The only thing that is the special effects which I am sure have not aged well since the early 2000s but I would recommend this film to everyone!

This movie was the most disappointing among those based on The Journey to the West. Even worse, the leading actress, Bai Ling's (or Ling Bai, whatever)performance is more disgusting with her "sexiness". Her character Guan Ying ( or Kwan Ying) is supposed to look beautiful and holy because of her place. But look what Bai Ling did to her! And also about Confucious, his words are quoted again and again but only to make him sarcastic. Every part of the movie shows that it only makes use of the story but never pays respect to the Chinese culture. Even though it tries to give people some flavor of scientific-fiction or even post-modernism, it proves nothing but failure. In a word, this movie spoils China's classic and also distorts /desecrates Chinese culture. Too awful!!!!!!!!!!

Now I doubt many westerners are familiar with the Chinese novel Journey to the West or with the legendary Chinese character of the Monkey King. So for the uninitiated this might be an interesting story with interesting characters. But despite the fact that they used some Chinese actors and actresses there is a hallow ring to this TV movie. It all seems staged to appeal to Americans and doesn't honestly follow the legends of the original Chinese texts. The casting could have been better. It would have been nice if they picked an actor with more depth than Thomas Gibson for the Nicolas Orton role. The probably chose Gibson for his popularity on network television at the time (in Dharma and Greg) instead of auditioning someone else for the role. Bai Ling is a spectacular woman to look at and a very good actress. She tries her best but she would have been better served if they wrote a better script and gave more emphasis to Chinese authenticity.

Yes, the weaknesses of this movie are numerous. The acting is, for the most part, horribly wooden, particularly with the lesser supporting characters. The real-world history is way off (among other flaws already pointed out in other reviews, "Journey to the West" is, according to what I've read at least, closer to 400 years old than 500, and the official objection to the manuscript was its nontraditional form rather than its content). Some of the characters, particularly four of the Five Traditional Masters, are way underdeveloped. Portraying Confucius as a self-serving sycophant is just *wrong.*If you're already familiar with the original story of "Journey to the West" and can't bear to see it butchered -- which is exactly what happens here -- then follow the one-star ratings given here and avoid this movie like the plague.For anyone else, this is a fun piece of work. It was hardly Emmy-worthy in any category (with the possible exception of Bai Ling's impassioned performance as the Goddess of Mercy) and has numerous plot holes not worthy of David Huang, but the story travels on well with only a couple of relatively minor diversions (well, I guess NBC wanted to make sure they had a good two-part miniseries), one can really care about those characters that do receive proper development, and can wonder and worry about the story's outcome.