The film co-stars Donald Chow, Aaron Kwok, Joe Chen and Peter Ho.

[7] The plot is based on an episode of Journey to the West, a 16th-century Chinese literary classic written in the Ming Dynasty by Wu Cheng'en.

The Bull Demon King plans to invade heaven again by using Wukong and preying on Erlang's anger towards the Jade Emperor.

Erlang agrees to help the Demon King in exchange for getting to kill his uncle and take Heaven's throne.

Wukong travels to the palace of the Dragon King to find weapons for the Mount Huaguo monkeys.

She is revealed to be the nine-tailed fox and the Demon King as the force that whisked her away, claiming to have saved her life.

After the Dragon King informs Heaven of Wukong's destruction, Erlang sends Nezha to arrest him.

The Demon King and Erlang conspire further, revealing that if Wukong consumes the Emperor's elixir, it will increase his power.

Princess Iron Fan learns of the Demon King's plan, who justifies his attack as destiny.

Ashamed, Wukong leaves Heaven and returns to find Mount Huaguo destroyed and all his friends dead, including Ruxue who has a dark substance around her neck.

Wukong notices the Demon King conjure the same dark substance he found on Ruxue and realizes he was the one that killed his friends.

[10] Later, Chow Yun-fat and Aaron Kwok were cast as the Jade Emperor and Bull Demon King respectively.

[citation needed] James Marsh of ScreenAnarchy referred to it as a "Hot Mess From The Heavens", saying it has poor CGI effects and a weak script, while praising lead actor Donnie Yen's performance as Sun Wukong, but ultimately writing Wukong as "a somewhat irritating character who can be difficult to sympathise with".

[21] Maggie Lee of Variety calls it "a simplistic, action-driven narrative with inexhaustible energy, but little style or substance".

[22] Clarence Tsui of The Hollywood Reporter writes "The Monkey King is filled to the brim with gravity-defying saints and sprites zipping across the screen in a litany of kinetic 3-D action sequences.