A renegade Roman legion takes refuge in a walled Chinese city and join forces with the Chinese to fight a Roman army led by a corrupt leader.
​ACTION/WAR

Dragon Blade (2015)

Written and Directed by Daniel Lee

Starring Jackie Chan, John Cusack, Adrien Brody,
Peng Lin, ​Si Won Choi, Jozef Waite, Mika Wang,
​Ned Bellamy, Paul Philip Clark, Danny Salay
Connor Eyaguirre
​June 24, 2016
6/10
Let me just begin by asking one question. Why is this film called Dragon Blade? The phrase is never uttered once throughout the whole film, leaving me to think it's mistranslated Chinese that's supposed to somehow appeal to American audiences. But I digress. Dragon Blade is an unremarkable yet fairly decent Chinese action flick starring the legendary Jackie Chan and two washed-up B-listers who needed a good-sized paycheck. Considering that both John Cusack and Adrien Brody bring almost nothing to the table here, it's not surprising that Chan upstaged them by a million.

This film has one of the most intriguing ideas I've ever heard, yet it butchers the execution. Who wouldn't want to see a movie about a Roman legion ending up in China during the age of the Silk Road? That sounds exciting, especially when you throw in Jackie Chan in one of his finest performances of his career. The film falls apart due to a lack of memorable characters and some seriously choppy editing that looks like it was done by a ninth grade film class student who's getting a D. Cusack phones it in while Brody hams it up so much that he ends up doing a goofy imitation of Commodus from Gladiator. Hell, the final fight is even ripped off from the film, even if it is superbly choreographed.

I seem to be saying this a lot lately, but in the right hands, Dragon Blade could've been gold. The music is great, the set design is fantastic, and the costumes are done pretty well. I can't get past the meaningless title and wish they'd gone with something that actually relates to the film. Legion of the East comes to mind, or something like that. Regardless, there's a lot to like about this film, but there's also a great deal not to like. In the end, the bad outweighs the good.