Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants

A Beloved Classic, Butchered by Bad CGI and Atrocious Script

Quite possibly the worst adaptations of a beloved series I’ve ever seen. The movie felt like a disjointed string of scenes barely held together by a flimsy plot. I showed up for Xiao Zhan, but not even his presence could save this mess.

The CGI was completely overdone—to the point where everything looked fake and took me right out of the story. The wuxia scenes, which should’ve been a highlight, were horribly choreographed and lacked any sense of realism or impact.

And don’t even get me started on Huang Rong. Her character was reduced to being utterly useless, and the styling choices for her were just… bad.

If there was one saving grace, it was the actress who played Hua Jing. She brought some much-needed depth and presence to an otherwise forgettable film.

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An Abysmal Disjointed Mess of a Beloved Classic

I am still in utter disbelief of what I just watched on screen for this beloved classic. The movie was a complete disjointed mess. If you are familiar w/ the story and other adaptions you will be incredibly disappointed, bored and even frustratingly annoyed. If you are not familiar with this story you will be utterly lost and confused. For a 2 hour movie, I skipped thru a lot. It was so boring an unengaging.

THE GOOD (its hard to even pull out anything good)
- The they kept the iconic theme song from the 1980s adaption
- Hua Jun (Mongolian Princess) this was a more complex, strong, interesting version of this character compared to previous adaptations of her being a whiny wimp

THE BAD (soooo many to list)
- Storyline and pacing was so rushed and disjointed. Left so many plot holes as to why certain characters are important or related.
- Zero character development, resulting in lack of emotional connection to any one character, even the main lead couple.
- Both ML and FL were utterly miscast. Zero chemistry. Neither one of them could truly portray the iconic characters of the slow-witted, adorable, loyal and freakishly strong Guo Jin or the cute, charismatic, cunning and witty Huang Rong.
- They just boiled it down to Ouyang Feng (West Poison) being the lead antagonist, whereas other adaptions had so many nuanced antagonists. And they made Ouyang Feng out to be some odd comic book character - his look, his acting, etc.

Overall an atrocious adaptation of a beloved class. What a complete waste of time.

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XIAO ZHAN IS NOT GUO JING

STORY
As adapted from classic book "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" this movie doesn't bring the original story that we remember, most of scenes hand-picked based on theme not mirroring the original book. The main is to get it colossal, going big exaggeration scenes about war which definitely missing important elements to get where the story end to. Hate to see it twisted and missing all the important details. With focusing on Genghis Khan, the Mongol army marched westward to defeat the Jin dynasty and then planned to head south to eliminate the Song dynasty. Skilled martial artists from various schools of the Central Plains were involved in the fierce battles - this is far from the book - Jin dynasty is the traitor from ambition and greed of Guo Jing's sworn brother Yang Kang and his step-father Jin Prince Wanyan Hong Li but without mentioning these traitorous characters - the script writer(s) made up story connection to fill the gap or tie the dots and unfortunately it fails to grasp the beauty of whole concept of the book 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' as to why this is such a beloved classic. But I kind of understand too, with so many adaption/version of this novel into dramas/movies since 1958, the Team wants to focus it from different angle - so different than previous productions but I feel like they fail to capture it's manifestation.

ACTING
For sure Xiao Zhan isn't Guo Jing. Guo Jing is a bit retard, naive, innocent, slow, big boyish strong young man. Guo Jing isn't a handsome youngster unlike Xiao Zhan, his honesty and loyalty that pull Huang Rong heart. The previous drama The Legend of Heroes 'Hot Blooded' actors are more similar features (Ci Sha as Guo Jing) in the book. Guo Jing doesn't have commanding present of him, he follows what Huang Rong says because she's the genius one while Guo Jing is the physical force/brawny. Although Xiao Zhan doesn't have much of make-up on, he lives by his reputation 'pretty boy' so we can't see Guo Jing in him. Xiao Zhan leads all men in the country as man-perfection but Guo Jing is just a down to earth man - in some scenes Xiao Zhan is being male-idol Xiao Zhan not slow-Guo Jing. I think that's the mistake. The girl playing Huang Rong is alright, I like the hairdo and make up - pretty basic and minimal. It's good....don't need super neat hair and flawless make-up where they're at Gobi desert.

OVERALL
It hits and miss. The producer forget important part to be colossal movie, skipping early chapters to straight to the end chapter of the book, a colossal without (or little) beginning. Its bigger but not better. Not a good movie, scale 5 is generous.

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it's incredibly draggy don't recommend to watch.

the actors did well on portraying their own roles but i honestly think its just the director who had forgotton its a movie instead of a series in the middle of the plot. he dragged it on way too long for no reason adding unnecessary scenes. this led to a short ending and a unreasonable one. i also wonder what are the soldiers for except stand there like a prop. no character development and story progression shown throughout the movie. if i hadn't seen the show or novel i would not understand the point of the entire movie itself. i have to be honest the cgi and effects of action scenes was quite epic but everything else is a drag and waste of time. i don't recommend (i dont usually put reviews as i dont criticise movie often but this id just a waste of time)

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