Dragon Blade

The story in the movie is a complete mess. I'm not going to go into details, but if you are considering watching this movie, you must have already accepted that legions of Romans in China is OK. It would be more plausible if they shifted the accent a bit more into fantasy (e.g. different kingdoms, one is more like Roman Empire and another like China, but not actual countries), so there are not so many complaints about historical inaccuracies, but it is what is and according to them, it's based on historical facts. There are also a bit too many secondary undeveloped characters.

So, as the title says, you would enjoy it if you just watch it for Jackie. The sword fights are pretty good; other fights, well some are not bad, some are meh. I watched it to the end, skipped only a few times, overall not his worst movie, but far from his best one.

Summary: Recommended only for true Jackie Chan's fans.

While the main message of the movie was about multi-cultural peace (probably what the world needs now), choreography was good (nothing less than expected from a J.C. movie), side jokes to make you giggle from this otherwise boring plot, nothing else about the movie was able to redeem it from it's cliché story progression and bad script.

1) The message about multicultural peace was smacked right in audience faces left, right, up, down from the beginning of the show. To make things worst, coupled with cheesy lines, it made a profound and wise motif seem plain cheesy, overly-simplified and lacked the depth it should have had.

2) Despite the strong development of major characters, minor/side characters were not grounded enough. Fickle change in beliefs by side characters (people of the Wild Geese Gate), once again, made the story look superficial and badly developed.

Unfortunately, great choreography, scene shots and strong casts could not save it from its draggy, underdeveloped plot and horrible script.

If ever anyone in the history of cinema has earned 2 hours of my life, it's Jackie Chan. Unfortunately, I was repaid this sentiment with two of the most horrible hours of cinema made in recent years.

When I heard of Romans fighting it out in the Silk Road, I liked the idea. But instead the film starts out with two Chinese historians (who speak English, naturally, since this is aimed at an international audience) searching for a lost city that the Romans built. The beginning is bad... ominously bad, and it only gets worse from there.

Rewind 2,000 years and with the tone set for a serious affair, until Jackie Chan adopts his usual "stunt-fu" in a fight scene completely out of place, but hey, it's Jackie Chan, so carry on.

Enter the Romans... John Cusack is his usual self but he seems to be accompanied by two of the most horrendous actors I've seen, in the guise of a child would-be Emporor and his male nanny. Actually, aside from Brody, Cusack and one or two Centurians, pretty much everyone who speaks English will make you cringe with how god-awful their "talent" is.

Anyway, the script's a total mess and for long periods, is actually very boring. Brody turns up as some power-craved maniac Emporor who didn't need to do anything bad since he was always going to be the Emporor anyway, and then we have a battle and, thankfully, the film ends.

Only, it doesn't. Instead, it goes back to the historian couple who enjoy the romantic scenery of the few sand-blasted columns remaining upright before they illogically announce that they'll never share their discovery, even though it's the whole point of their very existence!

Sigh. This film is just bad, illogical and painful and unless you're a die-hard Jackie Chan fan, I implore you to avoid it. For those of you who are Jackie Chan fans, just know that this is one of - if not THE worst film he's ever made and ask yourself: "Do you really want to taint your opinion of the great man by sitting through this?"

Read a review claiming Dragon Blade achieved "so bad it's good" status. Wow, did it ever! Imagine if Sharknado (the dethroned champion of "so bad it's good) had a $65 million budget.

This movie had a lot of good going for it. Jackie Chan is an amazing action star, made famous by his "stunt fighting" which he excels at in this movie. The production value was really top notch - sets, costumes, cinematography, special effects, all of it was quite impressive.

Where this movie fails on every level is the writing and the acting. I could go into great detail but I think the best comparison is the cheesy, campy entertainment that is the SyFy original movie.

Adrien Brody and John Cusack must have signed onto this movie like all the A-list celebrities back in the 80s making Japanese commercials for a quick buck, certain that no one in America would ever see them.

DRAGON BLADE isn't a great film at all, but given that the previous Jackie Chan film I watched was Chinese ZODIAC, it seems somewhat acceptable by comparison. Certainly it's a messy movie, which is typical of Jackie's more recent efforts, but it has some good stuff included alongside all of the tat. The story is supposedly based on historical fact and involves some Roman soldiers who traverse the Silk Road and find themselves in China. They're split into two factions, the small number of good guys and the overwhelming bad, and the good guys end up joining forces with Jackie and his men to fight the enemy. What DRAGON BLADE boils down to is a heady mix of laughable sentiment, Chinese comedy, war and battle sequences, and some very bad acting.

Jackie himself doesn't really seem to do much that's new in this film. The director throws in a few of his old-fashioned fight scenes to recall his glory days, and while the action is acceptable, it's never memorable. It's the western actors who do surprisingly well: Adrien Brody as the quietly menacing villain, and John Cusack as the likable ally. Some of the set-piece sequences are well-handled, like the building of the defences, and the large-scale action at the climax is quite a lot of fun. I was glad to see that director Daniel Lee has calmed down since the days of DRAGON SQUAD and can now direct reasonable fare like this and THREE KINGDOMS: RESURRECTION OF THE DRAGON. DRAGON BLADE isn't perfect by any means, but there's a good film hiding underneath the mish-mash of styles and ideas.