Rarely do I find myself jumping at the chance to view a film I’ve never heard of. Usually, I prefer to know a little something, maybe watched the trailer, but when I heard the title Kung Fu Monster, I knew right away it would be something I had to see. On top of the interesting title, it’s directed by Andrew Lau, who was responsible for the amazing film The Storm Riders and the film series that inspired Martin Scorcese’s The Departed, Infernal Affairs. Kung Fu Monster sounded like a win to me, with excitement in my fingers, I tore the disc from the case and popped it into the play, and watched it. Hmm, not exactly what I was hoping for.
As the Ming Dynasty is nearing its final days, the Emperor receives the gift of a rare monster. He puts his loyal trainer, Ocean (Louis Koo), in charge of training it for battle. As he begins to spend time with the creature, he realizes it’s a gentle, kind-hearted being. Ocean decides to go behind the Emperor’s back, and they escape. They quickly become hunted by the government before finding a hapless group of misfits who see the love in the creature, and they hatch an elaborate plan in an attempt to save its life.
Andrew Lau, when in his prime, was a ground-breaking talent, but over the last several years, his output has somewhat diminished in quality. Kung Fu Monster is never really sure what it wants to be until the final act. The first hour of the film is, at times, painfully silly, with humor that falls entirely flat. Maybe some of it is lost in translation, but probably not. The CGI creature is cute enough, but the effects just don’t really look right to me; most video games look better than this. The cast, including Koo, are brilliant performers, and even they can’t save this mess of a movie. Hell, some of them appear to be dialing in their performances. The only thing that saves the film at all is the final 30-40 minutes, which has a satisfying conclusion and several exciting moments.
Is Kung Fu Monster worth your time? Probably not. Maybe I should have at least watched the trailer before jumping into this one since I’m pretty sure I would have passed on it. Perhaps younger kids might get a kick out of it, and the creature is kind of cute. However, the script was not fully realized, and there were several directions the film could or should have gone in order to make a more interesting film. The cast and crew are all insanely talented people who should just forget about this and move on to bigger and better things.
