Best movie of this year hands down!

hyped garbage

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The synopsis for "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" (aka "Jiu ceng yao ta") does make this sort of feel like a mixture between the traditional Asian martial arts movie mixed up with a hefty doze of "Tomb Raider" or "Indiana Jones". And this is also what the movie turned out to be, to some extend...Visually then "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" was indeed a nice treat for the eyes to behold on the screen. Lots of great things, details in the scenes, props, costumes, etc. to look at. But the story just failed to have all that shine and luster that the visuals had.The story turned out to be a confusing scramble of an attempt of writing a coherent storyline, and it just lacked that all-important red thread that ties it all together. And on that account, the movie just became something of a visual presentation of various effects and Visuals, more than it was a story-based and story-driven movie. Which ended up being a hindrance for the movie.Now, whether this was the fault of director Chuan Lu or the fault of writers Chuan Lu, Bobby Roth and Nick Roth, I can only guess of course. But I am prone to lean towards the writers.The characters in the movie were well enough details and chiseled out on the screen, but they just were run over by the confusion of the entire movie, which overshadowed everything. And it should also be noted that they had indeed managed to get together a good ensemble of acting talents to star in the movie, just a shame that they had virtually no script or storyline to work with.There are far better forays into the adventure genre, even in Asian cinema, and as such, then "Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe" is hardly the type of movie that you will watch more than a single time.

1979 in a distant area near Mongolia, huge monster skulls are discovered. The exploration team finds a way to the ghost temple, where dangerous beings can get through a portal. Not only the big "hell hounds", but also the tiny "fire bats", whose mere touch burns human beings to ashes. Hu Bayi (Mark Chao) survives and reads occult literature to understand better what has happened to the team. The movie continues with the second expedition probably in 1988, not "present day" as many reviewers wrote mistakenly, because we see a 1985 calendar and then get a subtitle '3 years later'. Also Hu Bayi is not an old man yet. Anyhow, he meets his lost love Ping, who now calls herself Shirley and pretends not to know him. The second expedition takes them to a destroyed desert town, and then the monsters reappear. What will happen when the portal gets opened again? This fantasy movie is a bit complicated, not telling the events chronologically, but jumping between 1979, 1985 and 1988 (?). It's not too easy on the audience, but it's worth paying attention. The 3D effects work well, especially in the cave scenes when you really feel you can look down into the depths. I'm not entirely satisfied with the monsters, as the jumps don't look real. For the weight they must have, they jump much too high, looks a bit like rubber balls. Anyhow, the story satisfies, and the effects are still pretty good apart from minor grudges.

Well... I like adventure, fantasy... but this movie is bad! It's a patchwork!!!! I do not care about political or religious marketing... but at the first scene (like a Broadway musical) it's obviously and theatrical... and a I remember it from another movie (other context). Bad actors with exaggerated movement. Some scenes don't have logic or are filled with erroneous functionality, some people dead in seconds others delay minutes and survive (obviously most important characters), make reference to Alliens at a moment and in another call daemons, this movie take ideas from Indiana Jones, Godzilla, Mangas and others sources... But in a small moment the movie have a light of inspiration and present a beautiful photography, remember a good documentary. The movie use good visual effects and technological resources (possible a drone). If you don't have anything to make and need to spend time... It's a choice or possibility!

This movie is a prime example on how a few good individual parts alone can't make a great movie. It has arguably one of the better animations from Chinese films, gorgeous cinematography and intriguing occult mystery premise, yet the plot is thin and superficial. If a comparison could be made, the movie resembles video game, it literally jumps through outlandishly eye-catching set pieces and while they might look attractive, the working narrative is extremely disjointed.Story mainly follows Hu Bayi as a member of archaeology team sent to uncover ancient secrets. He then meets with Yang Ping, the love interest and soon enough become the reason he volunteers for more dangerous mission. Eventually, the team finds creatures, relics, disasters and all sorts of oddities that the movie barely explains. Characters are ridiculously plain. Hu Bayi himself mostly follows order and narrates the plot while the heroine Yang Ping is depicted as mysterious female.These personalities are lacking depth, especially when the movie introduces a couple of comic reliefs that don't matter much for story. The plot has the same problems from Jackie Chan's The Myth from years ago, it's too flamboyant for the sake of fantasy appeal that it doesn't have much continuity or clarity. It merely throws around some over-the-top fantasy gibberish to usher in new shiny sequences.Fortunately, it does have some flashy spectacles. There's a clear investment on the visual presentation. The scenes are gorgeous, be it may the blue horizon from snow mountain or the trek across the desert. It's set in the right era with good nods to ancient trinkets and modern vibe, almost looking like The Mummy franchise for costume and design. Cinematography takes full advantage of the exotic location, the lightning, buildings and even details like banners or furniture add to the atmosphere.Special effect is top notch, there are a few moments when the cameras pan to the beasts and you can see the fur waving around in the wind or how the chains rattle on their neck. It's a definite improvement from stiff CG many Chinese movies used even in last year. There's a bit of imperfection with the editing and practical effect, but when the overall scene looks so inviting, it's entirely forgivable.In the end Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe will leave audience with many aesthetically pleasing stages and also unsatisfied feeling on the story.