The Dragon Pearl

I recently watched this film with the kids and coming from a family of divorce was very impressed with the father/son relationship included in the plot.

The effects were great and the kids really loved the dragon!

Acting was also good was nice to see a familiar face in Sam Neil and I found Li Lin Jin's performance very impressive!

Would definitely recommend this movie to others, especially families with children and preteens. It is an exciting, humorous and original plot and had the kids on the edge of their seats the whole way through.

9/10!!

The storyboard of this family-friendly (no graphic violence, gore, sexual scenes etc) Australia-China produced movie is pretty original, with touches of Steven Spielberg's ET and Jurassic Park. In fact, Sam Neill is one of the stars, together with Jordan Chan (if you watch Hong Kong action and comedy flicks, you will know him).

Filmed in Hengdian World Studios (Forbidden Kingdom featuring Jet Li and Jackie Chan, Zhang Yimou's Hero etc), the sets involving the underground emperor's tomb and the golden dragon's cave are very convincing.

Above all, the scenes featuring the golden dragon are simply fantastic! In fact, this film has actually set the minimum benchmark for a CGI celestial dragon (with matching awesome audio effects), in true oriental fashion (watch out for the tongue-in-cheek cross references to conventional dinosaur-like/monster-type dragons during the movie).

In future, any self-respecting film featuring heavenly dragon(s) will need to measure up to the life-like CGI rendition in The Dragon Pearl. For this alone, this movie gets 9 out of 10 from me (the presence of Sam Neill and Jordan Chan helped, of course)......!

Very boring movie. Very predictable special effects are subpar and acting boring..

This is the kind of movie Sam Neil would do just to pay the rent.

I cannot believe somebody heard the pitch for this movie and decided to produce this film.

Doing the dishes and thoroughly cleaning the kitchen is way better than watching the hour and a half the movie it took to play.

Not in a good way, either. I expected a family fun adventure to take up my Friday night but instead it made me feel like it was Monday morning I was in that much pain. The bad acting and bad special effects really added to the torture and I admit that I cried a bit during the special effects. The dragon looked like a flying dog with badly synced audio that sounded like it had been recorded with a phone. I'm not saying this is the worst movie I have seen, it's just number 1 on my top worst movies I've seen. My friend came over halfway during the movie and I had to turn off the TV so he wouldn't see the "movie" I was watching. All in all, I loved it.

Every once in a while I truly enjoy a good family movie. The kid in me liked this movie. I gave it a 6 because its wholesome, slightly adventurous, and I enjoyed the cinematography. I was also drawn to it because it had to do with ancient China and of course a dragon. Sure there have been better films but there have most definitely been much worse. I wish the puzzles in the movie had been explored a little more but they fit where they needed to fit and you never got lost in what the objective was once it was revealed. A little bit of fighting, a tiny amount of weapons, but overall it should be a good watch for any kid or kid at heart. So the question I always ask after I watch a movie; would I watch it again. My answer is yes but not anytime soon. I already know how it ends and the adventure wasn't captivating enough to watch it again close together. So, family time, popcorn, and cuddle up for a down right cute watch. On to the next movie.