Loosely inspired by an ancient Ming Dynasty novel, this animated effort from Pearl Studios arrives with all the promise of being something close to ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ or ‘Wolfwalkers’, but it instead seems to have gone out of its way to be as middle-of-the-road as possible, with the most unlikeable lead character in recent memory at its center. The self-proclaimed Monkey King (voiced by Jimmy O. Yang) spends the whole movie trying to become immortal, so he can be as cool as he thinks he is (and tells everyone…repeatedly). But then everything just fizzles away. Skip, it and check out the woefully underrated ‘Kubo’ or ‘Wolfwalkers’ instead.
2/5 stars