The Monkey King 2 A.K.A. Xī Yóu Jì Zhī Sūn Wù Kōng Sān Dǎ Bái Gǔ Jīng (2016)

A Chinese fantasy directed by Cheang Pou-soi, starring Aaron Kwok and Gong Li.
A Buddhist monk releases the Monkey King from his prison inside a mountain and gains him as an ally on his quest to carry scriptures between temples. They meet another duo on the road and they all travel together. They arrive in a kingdom that is terrorized by a witch called White Bone Demon and run into conflict with her.
The 2 hour duration seemed about right because this sequel had more dynamic pacing than the original. The plot was better too. The quartet of adventurers encounter lots of different excitement on their quest. The 4 main characters were unique and extremely identifiable. The Monkey King even got a better voice! Still, we have Dragonball similarities coming up: Zhu Bajie was obviously Oolong. There was a little bit more dialogue that made a little bit more sense than the original and the acting was still humorous, but not as over the top. It's amazing what some actual sets will do to make a mostly CG film seem more realistic and believable. The costumes all looked good, as in the first film. I think I saw some actual camera movement this time that wasn't just programmed into a computer. The editing was still just as quick, but had a little more dynamics to it. Special effects were pretty and epic and CG and all that jazz. The soundtrack was very similar to the original and everything was mixed right. What irked me was that the subtitles I got had a credit for who made them through the whole first half of the film. Stylistically, it looked just slightly less like a video game than the first film. Other critics agree that this sequel was much better than the original. I rate it good, mostly for entertainment value. It's a fun movie.

The Monkey King A.K.A. Dà Nào Tiān Gōng (2014)

A Chinese fantasy directed by Cheang Pou-soi, starring Donnie Yen, Chow Yun-fat and Aaron Kwok.
A magical monkey-man character is created during the rebuilding of heaven's gate. He trains with a master and other pupils before returning to the jungle and arming his monkey friends. He then travels to heaven, where he causes an uproar and eventually turns evil. Upon returning home, he finds his monkey friends dead and this sparks a change in morality.
Someone in China is good at computer animation! The hour 46 duration seemed like a little bit less because of the dense content and quick pacing. I thought that the plot kind of wandered and could have been more cohesive. The main character reminded me of Goku from Dragonball. He even had the power pole and nimbus cloud. There seemed to be the dynamic, humorous Monkey King character and everyone else was static and serious. I think that much of the dialogue got lost in translation, even though there wasn't much anyway. The CG backdrops were amazingly well rendered and everyone's costumes fit their role. There was lots of "camera movement" and quick editing going on in the video side. On audio, we had the expected "epic" soundtrack. The Monkey King's voice kind of irked me. The style was so over the top as to be a negative element. There's only so much CG fantasy that I can tolerate. Other critics agree with me that it's all CG fantasy with no substance. I rate this adequate because it was pretty, but that is all it was.