Movielogr

Rating: 7 stars

Tags

Netflix Hong Kong China romans soldiers arrows sword fight betrayal

All movies seen on 09/03/2016

View on: IMDb | TMDb

Dragon Blade (2015)

Directed by Daniel Lee

War | History | Action

Overview

Huo An, the commander of the Protection Squad of the Western Regions, was framed by evil forces and becomes enslaved. On the other hand, a Roman general escapes to China after rescuing the Prince. The heroic duo meet in the Western Desert and a thrilling story unfolds.

Rated R | Length 127 minutes

Actors

Jackie Chan | John Cusack | Adrien Brody | Sharni Vinson | Kevin Lee | Raiden Integra | Tomer Oz | Alfred Hsing | Max Huang | Sammy Hung | Paul Philip Clark | Lorie Pester | Joel Adrian | Harry Oram | Kyle Shapiro | Jonathan Paulson | Vander McLeod | Philippe Joly | Faith Ugurlu | Danny Salay | Pierre Bourdaud | Jai Day | Murray Clive Walker | Emrah Yilmaz | Danny Cameron | Kyle Cameron | Kyle Andrew MacNeil | Daniel P. Cameron | Miroslav Karel | J.J. Demiannay | Alexander Corne | James Lee Guy | Will Lefebvre | Lin Peng | Steve Yoo | Choi Si-won | Ned Bellamy | Jozef Waite | Brahim Achabbakhe | Benny Urquidez | Mohetaer | Temur Mamisashvili | Zhenqi Li | Karena Lam | Vanness Wu

Viewing History (seen 2 times)

Viewing Notes

Quite enjoyed this epic historical tale of Roman soldiers encountering the Hun on the Silk Road. Rather incredible production shot on location in the desert with tremendous sets and setpieces and stunts. The melodrama is a tad goofy with the english dialogue especially Cusack and Brody’s line delivery but I’m sure that’s intentional given the audience.

I Jackie Chan as the hero that somehow has to carry this weight to bring peace between the 36 nations and rally all these different groups to fight together. Mostly just blown away by the sheer number of actors and extras and crew involved to make this movie, shot over 112 days.

This US cut is 24 minutes shorter so I would like to see the original cut at 127 minutes as it may fill in some of the gaps and probably provide more backstory on the Romans like Sharni Vinson’s character which is only shown in a very brief flashback here. From the interviews with Cusack it sounds like they had a relationship that isn’t shown in the film.

I have to think there’s more to Huo An and Cold Moon’s relationship that gets thrown quickly aside after the introductory action sequence between them. The making-of featurette provides some good info including scenes that definitely were not in this cut of the film.

Sad there wasn’t an outtake reel at the end with all of Jackie’s injuries during the movie.

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