WATCH ORDER: THINGS TO WATCH BEFORE BLACK MYTH WUKONG

Black Myth: Wu Kong is a game set in Buddhist mythology, released on 19 August 2024. Sun Wu Kong is the monkey king who was a god incarnate, even upon learning the ways of Buddhism from his master, he tends to be erratic, brave, and nonchalant. He is the smartest of all monkeys but he still finds difficulty in understanding the line between him being a part god part monkey and sometimes even part demon. Well the game itself has a very detailed backstory and lore to be understood hence this blog will give you the watch list so that you can enjoy the game to the fullest.

1. The Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven's Palace (2014)

The movie is set in Buddhist mythology, where there is a constant war between demons and gods especially between the Bull demon and the Jade Emperor, heaven gets destroyed to pieces and the protector sacrifices herself to recreate heaven, while doing so one of her crystals falls onto the human world inside the crystal a monkey was born with its life energy, who is none other than Sun Wukong, a priest takes him under his wing to teach him everything he knows. Sun after learning everything goes back to his friends the monkeys and becomes the king of the monkeys for his prowess.

Sun Wukong learning from the priest. "The Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven's Palace (2014)". IMDb,https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1717715/mediaindex/

This movie shows the origin story of Sun Wukong, it also shows how he obtains all his abilities, his weapon the special staff, and also his armor.  This movie also has very horrible VFX and graphics, the movie is quite wholesome as it touches upon, Sun's love life, even though he is very erratic in nature, he too finds solace in someone. The movie also depicts Sun's true form by the end of the movie which ties everything related to understanding Sun's origin story clearly depicted, which makes this a must watch before playing the movie, to understand the characters and the lore better, which gives an overall better gaming experience.

2. Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013)

This movie is set after the monkey king is trapped by Buddha to atone for his sins for 500 years, a young man who aspires to be a demon hunter by not using violence finds himself facing 2 demons a fish demon and a pig demon. Unable to defeat both, his master tells him to seek Buddha through the Monkey King. Sun in this movie is shown as a full-blown demon who even after 500 years of isolation is still unable to atone for his sins and continues to be a demon.

Sun Wukong is satisfied after killing a few demon hunters. "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013)". IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2017561/mediaindex/ 

This young man comes to Monkey King in order to find a way to tame the demon pig, in the process he frees the Monkey King without realizing, Sun tests his resolve for Buddha, and the young man starts to chant the Sutra and even after witnessing soo many deaths, he remains unmoved by anything Sun has to throw at him. Sun in his true form of the devil, turns into a giant gorilla, when he faces Buddha himself he realizes how much smaller than Buddha he is, physically and morally. Eventually, he joins the good side and follows the path of Buddhism, spreading and preaching the teachings.

3. Black Myth: Wu Kong - Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer (2020)

The trailer itself shows the amazing gameplay of Wu Kong as he traverses a land of demons, although the overall story is still unclear, it shows that there is a way to transform into others, as well as transform into any other animal, it shows some of the most important features of Wu Kong including the staff which can change its size as he wields, there is also his ability to walk on clouds. The opponents as shown here are the four heavenly gods.

Wu Kong uses his clone ability against the wolf demon. "Black Myth: Wu Kong - Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer (2020)" https://images.app.goo.gl/tDitRboTo41hGvbo7

Apart from this they also have some fighting gameplay that looks very clean, the boss battles look very fierce and a little bit on the difficult end, the game developers at GameScience have honestly done an incredible job in bringing Wu Kong to the video games, where every gamer out there can experience all these cool abilities that he has in order face the troubles he has to face to reach Buddha.

Alright, there is the list of everything to watch before you play the game, hope you guys have enjoyed the read, if you did make sure to spread the word about this blog to others interested as well, cause I am only going to be bringing you guys more of what you guys just read, hopefully I have at least motivated you to give one of these movies mentioned a watch. Well, I only wish to improve your experience in entertainment. 

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART ONE : Unraveling the Enigma of AI, A Thrilling Spy and the Impossible Hunt

1. OVERVIEW

    Lets talk about one of the best action films out there casting the best of the best action hero Tom cruise, this tale is a two part movie, it starts off with the story of the antagonist of the movie which is actually an artificial intelligence being which is good since they have actually kept up with the current scenario. They show what this entity is capable of doing and then they cut to the hero who receives a suitcase from the Impossible mission force (IMF).

    The suitcase contains a brief of his mission which includes him tracking down Ilsa who was the double agent in the previous movie Mission Impossible Rogue Nation. The entity itself is controlled by a key which is divided into two halves and sources tell that one of the halves is with her and Ethan hunt is on the chase in the middle of the desert in Abu Dhabi to look for her.

    Upon reaching the location he realizes that there are bounty hunters who are also after her looking for the key, he obtains the key and realizes it is too strong for any single person to have control of, so he decides to destroy it himself and goes after it with his gang, its soon after that he realizes that all the moves that he has taken was actually predicted and pre planned by the entity and he has to find a way to crack the probability and find a way to destroy the system.

2. CHARACTERS

    First lets start off with the protagonist of the show Ethan hunt, he is your typical hero, he is brave and chivalrous, he can handle himself in any kind of tight situations, he knows all kinds of martial arts and considering its played by Tom cruise, he does his own stunts and thats got to be given some credit. Tom is more than 50 years old and he is able to keep with the stunts and does it without being scared of losing his life, just so that he can entertain the viewers. That kind of actors who put their hearts and souls in the acting are hard to find.

    Next lets talk about Grace played by Hayley Atwell, she is the new character in the movie and considering this might the last Mission Impossible series she seems like the next protégé to Ethan in continuing the franchise. She is a thief and she doesn't trust anyone apart from herself, they only showed a part of her backstory in this movie, I am assuming the rest of her backstory is going to be portrayed in the next part. She is cunning and betrays Ethan on multiple occasions and the fact that Ethan continues to believe in her abilities is a surprise to me, but there must be a reason for that hopefully explained in the next part.

    Moving on, we see Benji Dunn who is the most iconic character in the mission impossible series apart from Tom cruise played by the lovely Simon Pegg is the "Guy behind the chair" character. He is the hilarious member of the gang and handles all the work that is related to hacking and getting Ethan whatever technological aid he requires during his missions, he has also been part of the mission by physically doing some spy work in previous movies which brings a little more of a character development.

    Talking of the one of the antagonists in this movie we have white widow played by Vanessa Kirby, she is a rich girl protected by her brother Zola, she is a recurring villain from Mission Impossible fallout, where she did an amazing job of acting and played her role really well, considering the entity is the main antagonist, she is just a side show in this movie but still plays an important role as well as gets played (The irony) by Ethan in a rather hilarious way.

    Finally lets talk about Gabriel who is Ethan's old nemesis as well as unfortunately or fortunately based on how you see it, is the human form of the entity, although not much information has been given as to why he is working for the entity, he does an incredible job by staying one step ahead of Ethan and trying to trick everyone around him in such a way that the events to occur is almost exactly predicted by him. He is a cruel man who doesn't mind killing people if he gets what he wants in the end which makes him the perfect antagonist.

3. CINEMATIC APPEAL

    The shooting scenes in the movie are like a video game because they are unrealistic and over-the-top. It seems very staged as if Ethan knew where the enemies were coming from before hand. Ethan Hunt is able to shoot down dozens of enemies without being hit themselves. This may be entertaining for some viewers, but it can also make the movie feel less believable and more like a video game. This gives me vibes of all the old movies which had extremely staged fight sequence, although all fight sequences are usually staged but in this case its seems very obvious.

    The chase scene in the movie is well written, Ethan Hunt is being chased by his enemies through a crowded city, and he has to use all of his skills and cunning to escape. Especially like in those Jackie chan movies where he uses all of his surroundings to make the best out of the situation. The scenes are also well-shot and edited, which makes it even more engaging. The graphics and animation are great wherever they were included since most of Tom cruises stunts are real it really brings out the creators and the actors love for the movie itself and it is exciting and suspenseful.

    The movie is not as good as other Mission Impossible movies because it has fewer cool dialogues and the action sequences are not as interesting. Infact it has a couple of scenes they are no dialogues at all, you see the actors making head signs to each other and you are just staring at their facing expecting something to happen, but this head signing goes on for like 10 seconds just to see a very dud scene, which I felt was a little bummer. This may be because the filmmakers were trying to keep the movie similar to other Mission Impossible movies, but they were not able to achieve the same level of quality.

    The music was basic there wasn't much hype, the Mission Impossible theme song was played only a couple of times in the movie which I am not super enthusiastic about, music is a very important aspect of the movie cause thats what makes people more interested and more engaging. 

4. PERSONAL OPINION

    The beginning of the movie is confusing because it does not provide enough information about the goal of the mission or the details of the plan. This is likely because the movie is part of an old franchise, and the filmmakers assume that the audience is already familiar with the characters and the universe of Mission Impossible movies. However, for viewers who are new to the franchise, the lack of exposition can make it difficult to follow the story. Its not just for viewers who are new, its for people who have watched the previous movies, without the bare minimum context its really difficult for the people to understand the situation.

    The fact that Ethan Hunt and his team are fighting an AI that is always one step ahead of them adds to the thrill of the movie. It is good that the franchise is able to explain to the people about the possibility of a rogue AI. The AI is a powerful and dangerous opponent, and it was not clear how Ethan and his team will be able to defeat it. This uncertainty keeps the viewer guessing and makes the movie more exciting.

    The fact that it is difficult to understand who is on whose side in the movie adds to the thrill and excitement. The AI is able to manipulate people and make it difficult to know who is trustworthy. A job of a secret agent or a spy which is what we can call Ethan hunt is partially relied on technology apart from his own skills and if the enemy is able to hack into these technologies, then its as if Ethan has lost half is body this great aspect which has been explained this movie. However, it can also be a bit confusing, as the viewer may not be sure which character to root for.

5. CONCLUSION

    The final sequence of the movie was well-planned and exciting, and it keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat. The final sequence was the most hype of all the scenes in the movie, its the heroes comeback and it has some extremely edge of the chair moments which is really fun to watch and again since its Tom cruise thinking all the stunts are real and performed by him it just adds to the gravitas of the situation.

    Overall, the movie is a mixed bag, I would give this movie a rating of 3/5. It has some exciting action sequences and suspenseful moments, but it is also confusing and lacks the cool dialogues and action sequences of other Mission Impossible movies. The cliffhanger ending leaves the viewer wanting more, but it also means that they have to wait for part 2 to find out how the story ends.