Storm Rider: Clash of the Evils

I've never watched a Chinese Anime, but it is definitely what I expected it to be The movie can be a stand-alone. Nevertheless, it does feel a little confusing; watching the movie, I couldn't help but feel something more complicated was happening in the story, and sure enough, there was. The movie is based on a manhua, yet from what I've read so far, it seems to be a watered-down retelling of the story, not that I minded with the liberties it took; This version was fine for what it had. It's a simple retelling. animation= 6/10. For the characters, sometimes the body, especially facialdesigns, are inconsistent. Many male characters, main and random, seem to suffer from same-face syndrome; for example, in the beginning, I confused Jue as an older cloud. Without the hairstyles, you really wouldn't be able to tell the main male characters apart though it still was a bit of a problem for me in the beginning because Due Long and Wind looked similar. Ying's(Cloud's love interest) design can sometimes look wonky, and in one scene, when she is talking to Cloud on the bridge, her mouth doesn't move when she is speaking. Some of the backgrounds are done well and most detailed, with some impressive scenery shots. Nevertheless, the combination of 3D and 2D animation can be distracting and clash with one another, especially when it's not done properly. The angles of some of the camera shots, along with the fade-in close-ups of characters, especially Jue, can look unintentionally silly when it's trying to be cool. The fight scenes, while sometimes quite impressive and entertaining in a couple of scenes, come off like Reggie VS Iwata with the colored wind effects and fast motions. The story = 6/10 without context; the beginning feels disoriented and confusing, especially for those unfamiliar with the manhua, and gets off to a rough start that smoothes as the story goes along. The movie has several stories interwoven in one big climax with not one but two or three battle scenes. When you think the ending is in sight, you have another fight. I didn't intend that to rhyme, but it seems they tried to compact a lot of significant plots from the original manhua while trying to make it short enough as a movie. Because of that, many details about the characters' context and motives get left on the back burner. For example, there is this one character that Jue confronts in the beginning and later reappears at the climax. He seems important, yet there isn't much we know. The little romance the movie has isn't that strong or developed, especially with Wind and a bit of a Cloud; nevertheless, he does have more chemistry with Ying than Wind does with Dream. There is a field scene between Wind and Dream where they profess their love for each other out of nowhere, even though they really haven't had meaningful interactions. The scene was a bit laughable, with the tinker bell jingles and twirling jump by Wind being so weird and random, just like the scene itself. Sound= 6/10 The dub was ok, and I'm not even a picky person when it comes to dubbing, but some of the characters, such as the death caller and the little girl (I don't know her name), voices don't seem to match the characters too well. The voice actors overall weren't bad. In the beginning, the voice acting for some characters like Jue seemed a bit clunky, but by the end, the voice acting was pretty solid; I can't speak for the Chinese version, though. Overall I would give the movie 6/10. It's not bad and manages to tie most of the loose strings together in the ending, though it is a bit confusing concerning Wind's fate. [spoiler=Winds fate]he stays in his demon form forever Apparently, [/spoiler] . It won't hurt to watch the movie if you want to; I won't watch this movie again. Good to pass the time, though.