The Lost Tombs is a well written installment of the Candle In the Tombs series. It starts with Fatty (Jiang Chao) and his greed embroiling Hu Ba Yi (Pang Yue Ming) in another get rich quick scheme involving possible tomb robbing in a town near the Longling Maze Grottos. Except it is a trap set by thieves and the two and gold tooth (Marc Ma) are soon in trouble until they get semi rescued by Chen Xia Zi (Wang Kui Rong). Some misadventures later they eventually cross paths with Shirley Yang (Zhang Yu Qi) and this is when the story kicks into high gear and the REAL tomb exploring starts.

The Bad. The pacing of this series is all over the place. Some parts seriously dragged and too much time was spent on inconsequential things. The CGI is a mixed bag with many totally "unconvincing" explosions.

Casting - I didn't like how they kept changing the actors playing the characters. Hu Ba Yi with mustache looks old and pudgy in this series. Thankfully his brain is still good because the body is far gone and unconvincing. Shirley was pretty but seemed coldly efficient, not feisty like the Shirley in Candle In The Tomb Jingjue. Fatty, Gold Tooth, the gangsters and the Blind Fortune teller inhabited their roles.

The Good. First, Vengo Gao as Zhe Gu Shao appears in a flashback. It is the best part of the series, getting to see a REAL tomb raider with REAL skills raiding a seriously hard tomb. That segment alone elevated this whole series as it ties back to what happened to him after the Wrath of Time and reveals his lineage. Second, when they get into the real tomb, the tomb, feng shui and traps are brilliantly written. The action is exciting and the spiders were done well.

Conclusion. If you can get past the slow beginning, and hold on until Vengo appears, you'll enjoy the rest of this good installment of the Candle In The Tomb series.