English Dub Review: Warrior King

In our modern era full of relatively recent cultural figures that come in and out through a revolving door, it becomes easy to forget there was once a time when cultures had only so many legends and stories to remember. Hercules, Gilgamesh, Shaka the Great, and so on, captivated the imaginations of ancient peoples thousands of years ago, but have become less appreciated in recent centuries. Not to say they necessarily should be revered above modern literary and pop culture characters, as writing and storytelling have most definitely evolved since then, but that it is still quite fascinating how stories and ideas have endured from thousands of years ago. Such is the case with The Epic of King Gesar, a poem originating from Tibet about a legendary king who was born a chosen protector that went on to perform incredible feats and win many great battles. Like Hercules and Gilgamesh, Gesar was born blessed by the gods, was given a great destiny, underwent training under a notable mentor, faced malicious rivals, and became a god among men who would be known for thousands of years. And so, in this current era of wanting to turn everything into a movie for marketing and making money, naturally he got a movie recently that had a brief run in American theaters.

Full disclosure and transparency, I am an utter and total cultural outsider to Tibetan culture, so naturally I have no idea how this adaptation of the epic tale compares to others, or even if there have BEEN many others to compare it to. What I can do is analyze the film itself on its own merits, of which there are at least a few. For one, the grand and mythic feeling of the story is certainly present, with a grand fantastical setting, elaborate (even arguably overly complicated) designs for the characters, and well designed settings and backgrounds. The flaws, however, are much more present and numerous. The story is EXTRA PACKED and oddly feels pretty slow despite going rapid fire through so many points. The animation feels like it is a nearly two hour long World of Warcraft cutscene…from 2007. Not sure if this is a common thing amongst Chinese animated movies for a Chinese audience, but the ones I’ve seen that are all CGI often look pretty cheap. And while this isn’t a flaw of the film itself, the English dub is incredibly choppy in terms of quality, even with the members of the cast like Richard Epcar who are veterans, which could be due to the dubbing process for Chinese language being very different than for Japanese.

All in all, I think this movie has more going for it by its reputation than as a movie on its own. It’s actually hard to tell what part is the real legend, what’s borrowed wholesale from similar superhero or mythology stories (definitely saw some overlap with Disney’s Hercules and Lion King at some points), and what is the doing of one or more of the EIGHT DIFFERENT PRODUCTION COMPANIES INVOLVED WITH THIS. Seriously, the opening credits have eight different logos. American movies tap out around three or four, and they at least look different enough. Ultimately, unless you’re knowledgeable about the history of Tibetan mythology or studying mythology in general, I don’t see why you would have any reason to look up this movie or even read this review. It’s fascinating in theory, but not a great time on its own, which is its ultimate downfall. For the sake of cultural preservation, I do hope the Epic of Gesar does endure in future adaptations, because this is not gonna help it do that.