Mostly Terrible
Summary
Tomb of the Dragon has some of the worst visual effects I’ve seen since the 90’s with no memorable characters that stand out. It has a couple of fight scenes but even they can’t save this. Hi-Yah! has plenty of entertaining movies, but this isn’t one of them… unless you’re watching it very drunk.
Plot: Towards the end of the 19th century, the patriot hero Liang Chao found himself hunted by the authorities. Facing imminent death, he entrusted his close friend Li Tianfeng with the “Xinyou Poetry Collection,” a tome concealing the secrets of a hidden treasure. Liang urged Li Tianfeng to unearth the treasure for the sake of the nation. However, in the course of this mission, Li Tianfeng unintentionally became the cause of his wife’s untimely demise.
Review: The trailer had me pumped for the Hi-Yah! exclusive Tomb of the Dragon (AKA Duo Bao Xun Long Bei Ming Kun Gong) as it looked like it was going to be packed with exciting fight scenes while also giving us a solid old-school adventure movie. Sadly, it’s the worst film I’ve seen for some time, but is still entertaining for all the wrong reasons.
Directed by Liu Guan Wei and starring Li Qian Ming, Lin Lin Qi, and Yang Xin, I feel like everyone does the best they can and wishes they were in a better movie.
The story involves the Xinyou Poetry Collection which reveals the secret of a long lost treasure, so a group of adventurers seek it out to bring freedom to their people. I’ll always give an adventure movie a chance as it’s one of my favourite genres, but none of the characters in this movie stood out and the characters are mostly annoying; the uncle who is addicted to gambling is the most irritating one and I’m disappointed his character didn’t meet a grisly end.
The script wasn’t the greatest and it didn’t help that some of the subtitles didn’t make any sense.
There is some 90’s level CGI including a bear, giant snake and centipede. With a decent budget they could have been cool… but that wasn’t this movie. Everything about this film feels cheap with its CG muzzle flare and even though there are a few fight scenes they aren’t even that special either. The final showdown is one of the few highlights.
It is at least well paced and less than 90 minutes which is a plus.
Overall, Tomb of the Dragon isn’t a good movie by any stretch of the imagination with terrible visual effects and annoying characters. It has a few redeeming fight scenes, but even the most diehard adventure fans will struggle to enjoy this one.