League of Gods

★★½☆☆

Based on reputable Chinese mythological novel “Investiture of the Gods” that dates back to ancient Chinese dynasties, one might have expected a potential Chinese version of The Avengers where various well-known mythological heroes and deities could rally against certain adversity.

Reportedly spending several hundred millions of the Chinese currency to produce, Koan Hui’s League of Gods sadly does not fulfill the above stipulated expectation and instead opts for a genre exercise to flaunt and explore the possibilities of CG effects. This revealed Hui’s inadequate directorial capabilities to elevate the production to great heights.

Boasting several Chinese and Hong Kong A-list stars, each of them play a character of the source material that only serve to look exquisite and mystical. Such was the case in Daji (Fan Bing Bing), a nine-tailed fox spirit that had undergone several changes of glittery majestic outfits throughout the film. Mostly seen through medium shots of Fan sashaying in her flamboyant outfit, it is interesting that Fan manages to instill a firm presence despite her limited role scripted.

Credited with “Special Appearance” and “Guest Appearance”, actors like Louis Koo also suffered in a limited support antagonist role. Huang Xiaoming and Wen Zhang’s performances were also noticeably hindered by their respective roles penned. This made clear the severely lacking screenplay (by Samson Sun and Cherryyoko) that prefers overly-lengthened action scenes as against expositional story scenes.

With stronger technical excellence and ambition in the screenplay, this could potentially be a Chinese “superheroes” project that can easily be exported to Western film markets. It is unfortunate that the project went under lesser filmmaking talents and stakeholders where they chased after the thrills of Hollywood references (heavily seen throughout the film).

For the vast amount of expenditure, visual effects are markedly seen to be significantly improved when compared to previous similar genre productions. The most recent The Monkey King was the closest genre production that League of Gods will likely be compared against.

As the film concludes with an abrupt suggestion of a committed sequel, the audience may find themselves wondering if box office returns are distracting the Chinese filmmaking talents from their main mission to craft good films and stories.

With an evidently capable digital competency where Chinese films are able to fully explore the potential of visual effects in films, it is regrettable that the key objective of telling a good story is forgotten in the process. This is even less forgivable when it’s based on a reputable Chinese mythological novel.

Also published on InCinemas.sg