Time Raiders (2016) User Reviews

Not Exactly Lara Croft

[boblipton · 4/10 · 27 August 2016]

When the scion of a family of tomb robbers discovers the key to an ancient tomb, his uncle refuses to take him along. Tomb robbing isn't for people with university degrees -- obviously none of their relatives has seen an Indiana Jones movie. However, the youngster sneaks his way into the affair and finds himself in the midst of a four-sided fight for the tomb.

For most of its length TIME RAIDERS is an interesting if derivative sort of work that you can slide into effortlessly. It shows good storytelling technique and intersperses some decent gags into its CGI-laden moments of fear and terror -- those bugs really are nasty -- even if I was occasionally bemused at the effortless way in which the Cyclopean mechanisms of the tomb operate after four hundred years of neglect. For me, a brand-new can opener comes apart the first time I use it. However, the climactic battle loused things up for me, as people were able to calculate to the instant to whack that chain with a sword to make it carry them to a rare moving spot of safety, or to shoot a moving nail head in the midst of chaos from a couple of hundred yards. I found the suspension of disbelief needed for fantasy snapped.

Up until then, however, it's fairly good. It resumed its decent technique after the battle, but by the it was too late.

Que Chinese-styled Indiana Jones music here...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 11 November 2016]

A Chinese delve in an "Indiana Jones" and "Tomb Raider" similar universe. An entertaining enough movie for what it turned out to be, surely, but it just wasn't a particularly memorable movie.

I gobble up almost all Asian movies I get the chance to watch, and having read the synopsis for "Time Raiders", then I must admit that my interest was stirred and I was somewhat anxious to sit down and watch it.

However, while the movie does boast some pretty nice special effects and CGI effects, it just suffers from having a generic script and some equally generic characters. The storyline was rather simple, yet easy to follow; you just watch the action, and you're up to speed. However, "Time Raiders" didn't turn out to be anywhere near "Indiana Jones", nor "Tomb Raider" for that matter.

Boran Jing and Lu Han do perform well and manage to keep the movie being somewhat entertaining and watchable. But they alone just couldn't manage to lift up the movie from being less than mediocre.

"Time Raiders" is adequate enough entertainment for a single viewing if you have nothing better at hand to watch. However, don't get your hopes up too high, because this wasn't really much of a memorable experience. The movie does have some good enough action and some good enough adventure, but you are just left with sort of a hollow feeling in your gut once the movie is over. There was just something missing from the movie; that one all-important spice. There are far better Chinese movies available.

My rating of "Time Raiders" is a less than mediocre four out of ten stars.

Not bad

[myriam-z · 5/10 · 26 August 2016]

Of course, this movie is not such a masterpiece, there's a general incoherence to the story, but it's not boring, with some good special effects. Lu Han is totally unsuitable for the role, this guy is just expressionless in my opinion, his acting really that bad, but he's a pretty boy and that's all that matters to his numerous fans. Jing Boran and Ma Sichun are suitable, proficient martial artists & skilled weapons performers, but the pair lack the chemistry necessary . Vanni Corbellini works miracles in his bit role and in clichéd script, with his intense expressions reflecting emotions and thoughts, but, once again, his talent was wasted.

Badly

[RobertLxb · 2/10 · 23 September 2016]

The book of Time Raiders is very popular in China. And so many young people love it very much. It have been made a film in 2015.

But it's very bad for Time Raiders 's fans. I have watched the film several days ago. I think it is a very bad thing. Fist, the major Man-actor called Zhang QiLing is a very silent man in the novel. No kidding, No smiles, No beer……

What we see in the movie is a funny man. The man we saw in the movie drunk beer and made joke to somebody else. I was watching it with full of enthusiasm, but i have slept during the process.

It seems a Love story between two men, not been a horrific story. The Man- actors are all very handsome, but I dislike it . Pretty faces wound not let audience to like the movie.

Nausea

[yoggwork · 2/10 · 19 February 2019]

We owe an apology to the nine-story monster tower. Plus, please don't play any more movies. Nausea.

not good enough

[PennyReviews · 2/10 · 26 October 2016]

Seeing the box office miracle this movie has achieved, I did expected more from this movie. However, even from the beginning, it was clear that this film would be bad. The two main things that were off for me were the story and the special effects. The SE were really bad, and they actually looked at some point like we were in a video game (an old fashion video game actually) and not in an action \ fantasy movie. I mean, for a 2016 film, you kind of expect more than unrealistic monsters and fake landscaped. Then, there is the story. I had a hard time understanding it, but decided to just enjoy the whole action Indiana Jones thing and not question it too much. But the ending was just incomprehensible. What was that? So, Wu, a young archaeologist (?) find a key with his uncle and they go after a tomb, along with a mythical like warrior and their team. But there is this foreigner who wants the secret to immortality and has sent his own team after that tomb. Ah! there is an ancient myth as well about a sorceress and some worms or something. Well, that's the main story, along with Wu's friendship with the warrior, though it felt more like a potential romance and if Wu had been a girl, well, it was too obvious that that would have been the best option. The story goes quite well till its second part, where things go a little off hand. What was the meaning of the painting? Did the final shots had a connection to a riddle or something? And if the movie had started with Wu telling us his story, should he had concluded it? Now, for some good news, the movie is short of entertaining and the action isn't bad, though, as I said, the SE were really bad and I would have liked to know why that warrior had his super human powers. The acting for most of the actors was good, but I would have liked a better effort from Lu Han. So 2 out of 10.

better than I expected

[shuyutong · 7/10 · 30 August 2016]

I read the fiction long time ago and still remember a bit. But the movie is a total new story, which is a bit disappointing for the fan of the series. But still not a waste of time for a popcorn movie. It's a story about tomb adventure and grown up. Wu Xie (Luhan) played a really good role in the movie. He was quite ambitious, naive and useless at the beginning, but grown up to be a sophisticated person after this trip. Zhang Kylin (Jin Boran), as a super skilled hero, helped the team to beat the Snake Empress. But a person with strong skills always make the story boring. The fight with Snake Empress is too long and unnecessary. Spoiler alert, all these are made up by Wu Xie (you can tell from some details), the real story is another thing. The director should have made this clearer for the audience.

Horrible movie

[xiongbenjamin · 1/10 · 23 November 2017]

Maybe I have too much expectations, but I doubt this was a low budget film. It's 2016 and the CGI looks like it was from the 90s. The opening of the moving leading up to the middle of the movie was decent. Then there after, everything was just ridiculous. It's simply not worth the time to watch. Be prepared to be disappointed.

Potentially good idea ruined by so many factors...

[paulclaassen · 1/10 · 25 July 2018]

This is a great idea badly executed. What was supposed to be an action adventure ends up being downright silly and unbelievable. The film has some really great visuals and them some not so great. Some good photography and then some weird photography. The film had so much potential but it suffers from a poor script and actors that just doesn't seem determined enough. This played like a stage production and was not believable as a film. Whenever there was excitement, it was ruined by silly humor, deeming the scenes more slapstick than serious or suspenseful. Uhm, no, it had absolutely no suspense - even during scenes that should have been. The film was laughable at times, and I don't mean in a humorist way. It was just stupid. Oh, and a flute makes everything all right...oh whatever...

The film's climax looked more like a video game, became very weird, and with CGI-overload nothing was believable. By that time I had completely lost interest anyway and couldn't wait for someone or all of them to die so the film could end.