Xun long jue (2015) was the first film from this series and, with all of its faults, it was entertaining and even enjoyable. Not so this film, which is a sequel in name of characters only. The actors are different, the dynamic of the group is different, the special effects and magical imaginary animals are the only attractive thing about the movie. The rest is all completely awful: the characterization, the acting, the dialogue, the editing, the plot, the story, the motivation of the characters, the ending. There is no explanation on who anybody is and how they got there or why the world seems to be our current one, but be inhabited by magical animals residing in areas managed by particular clans.
And none of it makes any sense to the point where it gets absolutely ridiculous. For example: they leave on rafts on a quiet river or lake, then the water starts to move faster and faster until it gets to a huge waterfall. The heroes survive that, only to be surrounded by some lizards so they have to jump (heroically) on a slope filled with rocks on which they all hit themselves repeatedly to no actual consequence. Here they go slightly up on a tree trunk over a precipice and reach a floating island. Now read that again, carefully: they drop huge distances twice from the level of a lake and they reach an island floating at great heights over a large valley. Even Avatar's Pandora makes more sense.
The general feel of the movie is that of a really bad video game. They just move from stage to stage, without any concern on how the stages are connected , why they are in this order and why the hero didn't take a more convenient road to get to something lying on the shore of a peaceful lake, but the graphics are great. Some characters die - mostly pointless deaths - and you can't possibly feel anything because no one made the effort to make the audience care for anyone involved.
Bottom line: this has absolutely no real connection with the first film. There is no reason to watch it at all. It is barely a film and as such, a terrible film.
And none of it makes any sense to the point where it gets absolutely ridiculous. For example: they leave on rafts on a quiet river or lake, then the water starts to move faster and faster until it gets to a huge waterfall. The heroes survive that, only to be surrounded by some lizards so they have to jump (heroically) on a slope filled with rocks on which they all hit themselves repeatedly to no actual consequence. Here they go slightly up on a tree trunk over a precipice and reach a floating island. Now read that again, carefully: they drop huge distances twice from the level of a lake and they reach an island floating at great heights over a large valley. Even Avatar's Pandora makes more sense.
The general feel of the movie is that of a really bad video game. They just move from stage to stage, without any concern on how the stages are connected , why they are in this order and why the hero didn't take a more convenient road to get to something lying on the shore of a peaceful lake, but the graphics are great. Some characters die - mostly pointless deaths - and you can't possibly feel anything because no one made the effort to make the audience care for anyone involved.
Bottom line: this has absolutely no real connection with the first film. There is no reason to watch it at all. It is barely a film and as such, a terrible film.