The Monkey King 3 is a lot less entertaining as a result. Its philosophical musings about true love are not quite so insightful, but more crucially, it hardly gives its more charismatic performers enough screen time
more successful as an episode in Soi Cheang's ambitious telling of the Journey to the West than as a stand-alone film, The Monkey King 3 feels scaled-down from the previous installments, but is at times affecting and at times bracingly grotesque
having eschewed the usual depictions of Wukong causing supernatural mayhem, The Monkey King 3 stands or falls on its musings about love in all its forms --- and they're largely unsatisfying
by Gabriel Chong [Movie Exclusive ]
