Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms
review by Bobby Blakey
I love an epic fantasy flick especially when infused into the martial arts and Asian cinema. Well Go USA looks to bring the next hit feature to the masses with their latest release Creation of Gods I: Kingdom of Storms. The film stars Kris Phillips, Li Xuejian, Huang Bo, Yu Shi, Chen Muchi, Naran, and Ci Sha. Could this latest martial arts fantasy epic have the magic to capture audiences, or will it fail to cast?
Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms follows King Zhou who reigns as a tyrant so brutal that he incurs the wrath of Heaven after conspiring with a conniving fox demon to kill the emperor and seize power. In a final attempt to save the mortal world from desperate peril, the gods decide to intervene and invest in an unlikely champion brave enough to challenge the evil king—even if it may cost him everything.
While I knew this was a fantasy, I wasn’t aware of the direction or characters it was going to go with. These are popular characters in folklore that have been showcased in numerous films including part of the Fengshen Cinematic Universe focusing on Nezha and Jiang Ziya. Being a fan of these films made it all the more exciting seeing them come into the live action world in this feature. These are just a small portion of this film but one of the highlights for me.
The film kicks things off with an epic battle that is perfectly shot and establishes the bigger scope of the film. For a time after that it feels like the typical wuxia epic film before it takes a detour into the full-on fantasy film.
From this point forward the film is special effects heavy with some being great and others a little cheesy at times. You obviously have to buy into this world for it to work, but if you do it works pretty well. It’s got its flaws, but they go all in to create a bigger world for this story to success more than failure.
Once you get into the meat of it all it continues to take things to an epic level and ends up being fantastic. The sets, costumes and surroundings are vibrant and beautiful. It fully embraces the culture and an insane amount of detail to every element. Despite some of the CGI issues I ended up loving this film and got pulled completely into the fantastical world and eager to see more. For those that don’t know the entire trilogy was filmed at the same time so just waiting for an official release date for the next chapter.
If you love martial arts period features with an infusion of films like Lord of the Rings then this is a film you must check out. The feature offers up two after credit sequences setting up the next chapter that promises to be taking things to a whole other level when they bring it to audiences.
Check out Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms available now on Blu-ray and DVD from Well Go USA.