Netizens Are Mocking China's New Monkey King Movie Coz It's Basically Ripping Off Iron Man
Marvel at this.
Step aside, Tony Stark - there's a new Iron Man in town!
Image via Tencent Video
Well, Iron *Monkey*, if you wanna get technical about it.
Making its debut on Chinese streaming site Tencent Video today, the legendary Monkey King a.k.a. Sun Wukong from classic 16th century novel Journey to the West look like he's gotten himself a futuristic makeover in a new movie
Image via Tencent Video / Geek Culture
Clad in red-gold armour and questionable CGI, Armored War God Monkey King (机甲战神孙悟空) follows the Monkey King as he travels across parallel universes in heaven and hell to save the love of his life, culminating in a final battle with a similarly outfitted rival.
However, reactions to the movie have been pretty harsh in China, with netizens taking to social media to call out filmmakers for basically ripping off Iron Man.... and not even in a good way
According to Shanghaiist and AbacusNews, netizens remarked that the movie is nothing more than just a cheap Iron Man knock-off with bad CGI and even worse, a sappy love storyline for the typically bada** Monkey King.
"I have only one question... Isn't that shameful?" said one Weibo comment which was liked over 1,900 times.
Another wrote, "Stan Lee passed away not that long ago. How dare you?"
It was also pointed out that some scenes, particularly those in the trailer, seemed like they were taken right out of the Iron Man movies
Image via Marvel Studios / Tencent Video
The armour's design aside, the red and gold colour scheme can't just be a coincidence...
Image via Marvel Studios / Tencent Video
Okay, Iron Monkey's interface is a lot less, um, sophisticated, but STILL
Image via Marvel Studios / Tencent Video
So, what do the filmmakers have to say for themselves? Well, they're not exactly denying the similarities to Iron Man, but added that they were also inspired by Transformers and Gundam.
In a behind-the-scenes promotion video, the production team said that despite the obvious influences, the point of the movie is to show that "we can make armoured heroes that belong to China".
"No matter how difficult the process is, we’ll carry with us our childhood dreams, presenting to the world a Chinese-made smart armour."
Hmm... if you say so. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Watch the trailer and judge for yourselves:
This is not the first time a production company in China has been accused of plagiarism. In 2015, Chinese filmmakers made a cartoon that looked like the carbon copy of Disney's Cars:
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