Legendary: Tomb Of The Dragon

Legendary: Tomb of the Dragon (2013)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: Eric Styles

Starring: Scott Adkins, Dolph Lundgren, Yi Huang, Nathan Lee, Lydia Leonard

From: Several companies, including China Film Group and Midsummer Films

Yep, another review where most of it is copied over from Letterboxd. In short, someone on a messageboard recommended to me early in the year I should watch this. The film was on YouTube at the time. Eventually it was taken down, but I found it on (redacted) so I watched it there tonight, and hopefully that person appreciates it that I finally took him up on his offer.

The plot description from IMDb: "Travis and his team travel to China in search of what isn't supposed to exist ... their mission to capture a Cryptid which is wreaking havoc in a remote village and they need to do this before it is killed by Harker, the legendary bounty hunter."

The best way to describe this movie: the movie where Scott Adkins is a cryptozoologist. If you don't know, cryptozoology is the study of animals said to exist but there's no definitive proof of their existence. You know, like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and various local lore you likely haven't heard of before. That pseudoscience field is more interesting than this film, which is just known as Legendary on IMDb... understandable as there are no dragons or even any tombs.

The big bad creature is some giant lizard thing that might as well be a huge gecko or salamander and it's not even like the Chinese version of a dragon you saw in, say, Mulan. But I suppose that “Legendary: A Giant Killer Salamander” doesn't have quite the same ring now, does it?

This UK/China collaboration filmed in China had martial arts film star Adkins show off his acting chops for once (he was healing from an injury so I am sure he was fine to relax and probably enjoyed the free trip halfway across the world too) as a scientist who along with his team is looking for a mysterious aquatic creature but a constant thorn in his side is hunter Harker, played by Dolph Lundgren; he does liven up the proceedings as he plays a tremendous A-hole. He provided a lot of entertainment.

Then again, Adkins can come off as a dick too and I don't know if that was the intention. Right after the critter kills one person and tries to kill a few others, he proclaims that the animal should be saved and protected! Viewing it as him being deluded and crazy and harmful for the locals and his own team by his obsession for keeping a killer animal alive... that puts an interesting spin on things.

What you get is a dull at times and usually goofy story and a take on a light Indiana Jones-style adventure, including an enemy trying to muck up things. It's a long story why I watched this movie; I won't get into it. One thing to note: unlike some of the people who commented on the film already, I thought the computer effects were pretty bad and so fake-looking they took me out of the film. At times I did laugh AT the film, which is part of the reason for the rating. I am glad I didn't hate it or think it was boring, as I had feared beforehand. There's also colorful opening/closing credits (w/ a funny/wacky song during the latter) and a silly ending.

This isn't awful; I was able to finish it and it did not fill me with rage. It is better than the huge glut of terrible creature feature movies you get on the Syfy Channel with even worse computer graphics, although this film is destined to be on rotation on the channel in the future. It's just that the movie's average at best and it is helped by both the lovely rural Chinese scenery and Dolph's ruthless villainy. If it wasn't for that I wouldn't be as generous with the rating.

Still, there definitely are better and/or more creative DTV films out there featuring Dolph and Adkins, whether it be both them starring in Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning or with Adkins, the Ninja movies and Undisputed II or with Dolph, The Russian Specialist and Universal Soldier: Regeneration. I haven't reviewed them all as some I watched before I joined Letterboxd or even started doing these movie reviews, but I can vouch for them.

I'll return tomorrow night.