Jing Boran, Angelababy
Movie rating: 7/10 Neck score: A
I figured having loved the show, I would have to give the movie a try sometime. I'm glad I did. It was very good. In some aspects I would say better than the drama, but both are definitely well worth watching. The movie obviously had a better budget, because the CGI and sets were way better, and way more realistic. I also think all the acting was better too. I think that both Jing Boran and Angelababy were able to show more realistic and fleshed out characters in less than 2 hours than in the whole length of the series. I love the micro-expressions that give us insight into the "gaming god" character of Xiao Nai. I also loved seeing a more nerdy, gamer girl version of Bei Weiwei. She was way more engaged and I actually believed she played games instead of just looking perfect and pretty. But there really was only 2 hours to put in the whole plot, so everything does feel like it's moving at a lightening pace and is way over simplified. I really missed them spending more time on the side characters, and especially the plotline of the awkward relationship between Hao Mei and KO. They only had time for like two scenes that mentioned that whole mess, which is a real shame. So on the whole, both are great for different reasons. It's only when you are comparing the two that you'll notice the production quality is way better for the movie, and the leads in the drama are so pretty that you don't really mind that they aren't the best at acting. It's fine. I still love both and recommend both as great. But if you only want to spend a few hours, the movie is the way to go, if you want to invest for a long haul, watch the drama.
