There wasn't much in the story to be quite honest, but it was very effective in showing the bond between the Nie brothers and the virtues of Nie Huai Sang. On the other hand Jin Guang Yao, albeit having only a few scenes, managed to turn the events around.

The actors of the Nie brothers were excellent. While they also acted well in The Untamed, they really shined here. We only mostly saw Nie Huai Sang's cheeky side in the series, but here he shows a full range of emotions. In fact it wasn't only his acting that got to shine, it's the depth of his character as well. Not disclosing much, but he has strong virtues (and the stubbornness) that reminded me of Wei Wu Xian, which is also why he probably quickly warmed up to him. Nie Ming Jue, as always, is bad-ass. And in this movie, multiply that bad-assery by 5x.

Also props to another actor who was really into the scene even if he was just in the background. Again I wouldn't want to spoil much, but he is a random Nie Clan disciple who just stands in the background. The other disciples simply wear blank faces (since they're not the focus of the scene anyway),but I noticed that there's one who was really giving his all. I'd like to appreciate all the actors, both the main ones and the "extras".

The strongest aspect of the movie for me, aside from Nie Huai Sang's character arc, was definitely the action. The CGI wasn't really better than the series (it was worse in a few scenes actually),but the suspense was topnotch. The movie ended before I knew it, and that says a lot of good things about this kind of movie that had like 80% action scenes. I really wish I was able to watch it in the theaters because it was that cool! (But thankfully I made a right random choice of watching on a 40-inch screen instead of my phone lol)

All-in-all it was a great side-story to the series. In fact I strongly recommend it to those who have finished it, in order to get more understanding about the ending and Nie Huai Sang's motivations.

AND DID I ALREADY MENTION NIE HUAI SANG'S ENDING SCENE?! THE MOVIE'S ALSO WORTH WATCHING JUST FOR THAT FINAL SCENE ALONE TBH