A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella ( 1995 )
I was so confused by this film that I needed to read a synopsis for it on the internet to figure out what I had just seen. The plot involves tie travel. In the last film Stephen Chow's character came in possession of Pandora's Box, a magical item that when exposed to the moon allowed the person holding it to travel back in time. Chow used it totravel back a few minutes so he could prevent his wife from committing suicide. But he kept arriving just too late to stop her, forcing him to use the box again and again. Finally one of the attempts causes him to travel back 500 years where he is captured by a beautiful goddess and forced to be her slave. Part one ended with Chow being marked on his foot by the goddess, which fulfilled the prophecy that the reincarnation of Monkey King would be identified by the same mark. Here is where things get confusing. Now trapped 500 years in the past ( because the goddess confiscated Pandora's Box from him ) he ends up interfearing with the events that opened the first film. Making things more confusing, we meet the characters that will reincarnate into the characters in the first film, and the monk that sacrificed himself in the first film is prevented from doing so by Chow who was attempting to steal the Pandora's Box he was holding, and therefore lives beyond where he did in the first film. And the goddess who captures Chow turns out to be sisters that share the same body (?), one that inhabits the body at night, the other during the day (?). And if they are sisters, are they earlier incarnations of the demon sisters from the first film. And why is Chow falling in love with the daytime goddess when he is suppose to be in love with one of the demon sisters, and had traveled through time to save her? And then suddenly the goddess sisters no longer inhabit the same body, but are separate individuals? And hen one of them throws a spell that causes four characters ( including the goddess sisters ) to switch bodies? And then both demon sisters from the first film show up in the past, and one of them kills Chow? And then his ghost decides to incarnate back into being Monkey King to battle the Bull King, and then ends up rejoining the monk on his quest to India to obtain the religious scriptures, but then sees characters who look just like Chow and the Goddess, but are they reincarnations or the same characters from a different time line or different characters who look like the same characters? And the events from the first film were never resolved because Chow suddenly went back in time? So are they really going to be abandoned? Does Chow's demon wife die of suicide, and the baby that is the reincarnation of the monk get eaten by the future Bull King? Norman coordinate!!
The problem is that each synopsis I read had a different interpretation of the confusing story. One thing is for sure. There should have been a movie where Stephen Chow played The Monkey King for the entire film, and not just in the last act of the second film. The Chinese Odyssey films are well re guarded by Hong Kong movie fans. Considering how many superior fantasy films were released during the same decade, I can't understand why this one was liked so much. Even third rate fantasy like Deadful Melody ( 1994 ) is better than this.
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2( 2017 )
The big question was why did Marvel Studios choose to make the first Guardians of the Galaxy film when they had an overload of characters who had not yet made an appearance in the MCU yet? The answer, the MCU needs spaceships. The thing is, the Marvel comic book superheroes connection to outer space came via The Fantastic Four. Not only did they have their own rocket ship launch pad built into the side of the Baxter Building ( complete with a ready to launch rocket!! ) but in their second issue, managed to capture a Skrull flying saucer, which they used or lent out to others whenever the need came to travel into outer space. With The Fantastic Four stuck over at Fox, and the Infinity War coming up, the MCU needed another way to get all those superheroes into space. Enter the slightly obscure Guardians of the Galaxy where everything is Buck Rogers except on Earth. Plenty of space ships that can transport the Avengers ad their superhero pals to Thanos for a final battle.
Well, at least that's my theory. But for whatever reason instead of getting to a Doctor Strange, Ant-Man, Black Panther or Captain Marvel film sooner, Marvel chose to make a movie with characters who are yet to be connected with the superheroes in the MCU when they were making a mint releasing films with Avenger members. And not only was it a hit, but at the time the second best of the MCU films ( with the first Avengers film at the top. ) So, was the sequel as good as or better than the first film? I'd say as good as. The only bad thing about the film is that it is stuck in the MCU where sequels will be far and few when I would love to see these characters in more movies. Also, can we do something with Howard the Duck rather than just brief cameos? I know Marvel would rather forget about that one HtD movie, but with the CGI technology, he could finally be in a decent movie. Hopefully Howard is going to be in the Avengers film. After all, wasn't Howard connected to the Nexus of reality or something like that?
Topic: What was the last movie you watched? (Read 1536412 times)
