To me, this movie is perfection.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

a fairy story,with seductive choreography of fights, with a delicate love story, using same theme of battle against evil and the vulnerability of illusion. few drops of humor, CGI as useful tool for create a great show, few admirable images and a script who seems serve the scenes of fight. because the story is almost a pretext. the coherence is just insignificant detail. the acting - a sketch. all is reduced at a silk scarf who mixed legend and martial arts , meeting of a poor honest man with a demon, the wise master 's sacrifice and the magic as key to maintain the order of world. and each does The Sorcerer and the White Snake a decent film for young public.

A true monk and Master never isolate true lovers or hearts !I am strongly disagree with a story and imagined character of the Master Jet li in the Movie.Even all the Budhas(Sidhartha Gautama, Bodhi Dharama etc.) were non-violent by nature and never broke anyone's heart.How can a Budhist Master could isolate lovers, break hearts and be violent on a lover(white snake) who is just fighting for her love ? I am strongly disappointed and dis-agree with a story !that's good there is not a sequel of it.Thanks.Danial Detox

After watching this movie, I read what the original story and opera is actually about. I won't rate based on the original story. If you want the original, go read it or see an opera. I don't base my rating of this movie on its CGI. If you want "eye candy" go watch fireworks. This movie is a martial arts film with a great deal of action from the start. There are moments of comedy that I found very funny. Overall it is a forbidden love story.I don't understand if the Buddhist monks are supposed to come off as being jerks and idiots or not. In the very first fight scene between White Snake (Shengyi Huang) and Abott Fahai (Jet Li) he issues an ultimatum to leave but gives Xu Xian (Raymond Lam) a dagger knowing it could kill Xu Xian's wife. White Snake, at this point in the story, has done no harm and even saved a whole village from a poisonous curse.Cutting White Snake no slack, it would seem, the monks attack her in the home in the very next scene. I know that Buddhism is a philosophy of life, but these monks, in this story, come off as being close to sanctimonious zealots. It is here that the tale becomes a tragedy and I never cared much for Shakespeare either. But I don't lower the rating for that reason as well.I gave this movie low ratings for showing a serious lack of character motivations and development. I seriously didn't understand the motive for continued interference by Abott Fahai. The movie dropping the unfinished subplot of Neng Ren, only to inject it once again at the end seemed abnormal and out of place. The "forbidden love" aspect and whole premise to any kind of moral is not explained. At the end of this story, you are left with a big question mark over your head, and wondering if you understood the plot at all.

This movie is based on an old Chinese legend about a white snake that turned into a woman and falling in love with a man.There are other versions of this story made into movies. The significant of this movie is the liberal use of computer graphics, making the snake-woman more visually convincing.But the movie goes overboard with the CGI. Some of the effects look obviously fake and/or choppy. Perhaps they haven't mastered the CGI software.Another thing that look out of place is the presence of a small animal sidekick. There is no such things as sidekicks in Chinese legends. It is very odd to see one in a Chinese movie. It is more like a Disney thing.Also strange to see is a western monster like the flying demon. I think I saw it in some western monster movies recently. Perhaps they bought a pre-made and pre-animated monster cheap.The story does not have enough plot to support a full length movie, so they added lots of unnecessary fights. It would be better and cheaper to add more twists.Overall it is an OK movie, from a Hong Kong movie standard. Obviously it is sub-par when compared to Hollywood production.I watched this movie using a streaming video service. There is English subtitle.