New Gods: Nezha Reborn

Awesome blast, candidate to animated movie of the year! The story takes place 2000 years after 2019’s Nezha. The film works on its own, but there are, of course, references to the first one. Anyway, the 3D CGI visuals are among the best I have ever seen, it so captivatingly beautiful! It could be said that it is somewhat of a gangster movie with a superb car chase, which looks like it came out of Mad Max, and an amazing underwater sequence, reminiscent of Aquaman. (The crab riding a lobster shooting a crossbow chasing Ne Zha riding a shark with steel jaws is really cool), and there are also fantasy elements (dragons and the classic Wu Kong!). In terms of action and visuals, it definitely belongs to the best that has been created in the animated genre for a very long time. Additionally, the characters are likeable and the story is gripping, it has excellent pace and also great music. Everything worked out perfectly here. China may have the strongest year in the last decade. I recommend it, 9 out of 10. 9/10. (08.04.2021)

I can agree that this movie is stunning visually, however, truth be told, I prefer movies about Chinese legends when they are done in a more traditional fantasy style rather than a more modern one. That is basically why I was much more captivated and enchanted by movies such as White Snake and Legend of Deification. Story-wise, it is quite interesting, it almost seems like the Chinese producers wanted to make the ultimate movie, and therefore put everything that they could think of into their modern 3D animated universe. Therefore I found the appearance of the Monkey King absolutely predictable, and unfortunately, nothing else in this movie was very surprising either (a logical reference point is 2019’s Ne Zha). Was it a storyline that had me sitting on the edge of my seat, an intensely emotional experience, a movie that gave me a sudden rush of nerves? Unfortunately and sadly not! In the end, I thought this movie was not all that bad. However, I still felt the motorcycle and car chases did not look that great even with the really high-quality 3D graphics, to me they looked more like weirdly animated models, but I thought the rest of it was actually pretty good. 6.8/10. (19.04.2021)