The plot and character development are catastrophic, and simply lack any sense of believability. The visual effects are cheap and lousy. Some actors are just amateurs and give really bad performances. Yes, the production design and music score are OK, but they're just negligible compared to the defects.

There are plenty of entertaining action scenes in this movie, ranging from wire fu fighting to large scale CGI-monster fighting. These are imaginatively filmed and have some nice touches, even if here's nothing as good as the best action scenes from the previous Detective Dee movie, Phantom Flame.In between action, there is a very poorly told story.Actually, "story" is an exaggeration. It's more like a collection of incidents told in a particularly order. Everything just kind of happens. A ship battle results in disaster! A woman in a mask is in trouble! There's a merman! There are bandits! There's a new detective! There's a swimming horse! There are poison flowers! Everything is introduced by someone just saying, here is this thing that we need right now.There's a general rule in film that if the hero is going to pull out a gun in the final act, you want to establish that he owns a gun earlier on. That doesn't happen in this movie. Instead, there's a problem, and suddenly someone says, I know who can help, or, I've got the solution right here, or, the solution is at this place let's go right now.This is how a ten-year-old writes a story.No character development, little motivation, no real coherence. Dee's Sherlock Holmes deductions are generally unpersuasive.It's a dumb story, badly told, but the action scenes almost make up for that. Almost.

I fall squarely in the camp of those who prefer this sequel to the original... I found Detective Dee to be a better made film in the sense that the acting was strong, time was spent on character development, tighter production values, etc., but somehow it was far from satisfying to an American sensibility. The Dee character wasn't strong or clever enough, the writing didn't come to a satisfactory conclusion, and the story was poor in both pacing and structure. There was hardly any 'detective' to Detective Dee.This prequel, though lighter weight and more far-fetched in almost every other way, is at very least more entertaining. The characters are clearly drawn with obvious strengths and weaknesses, the film moves at a fast clip and yet manages to avoid being too confusing, and the first ending, the fight on Bat Island, delivers a sufficient payoff. Unfortunately Tsui Hark can't keep himself from concluding with a huge and derivative effects sequence, but at that point the film was essentially over. And don't miss the mid-credits comedy bits, cute enough to be worthwhile.

At the ending of the scene, the Dragon appeared. It attacked the ship. Suddenly I realized that I saw this scene before. Yes, it was from the Dead Mans Chest big octopus scene from the Pirate of the Caribbean. The producer seemed to copy it from American Movies. It is not original.Pirates of the Caribbean The Kraken Battle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq8EGbz4PuwIf you compare it, it is the same identical plot.The title is not suitable for the story. The actors performed well. Feng Shao Feng is a rising star from the TV hit. I'm Chinese but I don't speak or understand Mandarin. I watch the Chinese drama and movies from Youtube or viki.com. Sadly AMC theatre was empty. I and one couple were the only audience on thursday at 4:40 At AMC Bay (Emeryville, CA).The movies should translate in English; not subtitle. I had trouble following it because it changed too fast. Too much fighting and I'm not sure about the story. That is one problem I don't care for Chinese movies. It is all about fighting and lacked of plot. I hook on Korean drama. I also digged up some of the producer past movies. And, they were terrible. This one is amazingly well done as far as using the technology to create the product that is good as Hollywood.