Das Geheimnis der Drachenperle (2011)

Das Geheimnis der Drachenperle: Directed by Mario Andreacchio. With Sam Neill, Louis Corbett, Li Lin Jin, Ji Wang. Josh and Ling were expecting a boring vacation visiting each of their parents at an archaeological dig in China. But the new friends soon discover they’re right in the middle of an adventure when they find a Chinese Golden Dragon.

“I had the opportunity to catch this film as a prerelease promo. Knowing nothing about it except that the story took place in China I thought it would be a good waste of an evening. It was. A waste, that is.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere is a long standing tradition among American film viewers that, with rare exception, any movie with the word u0026quot;dragonu0026quot; in its title is going to be disappointing. The Dragon Pearl is not one of those exceptions.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe entire thing feels like it was written, cast, and directed by a high school drama team. The story is bland and predictable, following the typical adventure theme. The characters were cookie cutter clones of every adventure movie character weu0026#39;ve seen. The actors might as well be made of cardboard for all the emotion they showed. The poorly choreographed fight scenes rely on bad camera angles and 1 second shots to drive them along. And the film itself… maybe it was just the version I watched, but it had a grainy late-80u0026#39;s style to it. (Think: The Goonies.) u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI missed about 1/4 of the dialogue due to lack of subtitles (Chinese and English are both spoken throughout the movie) but that should be fixed in the actual release.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe dragon itself amazed me. It wasnu0026#39;t very good (it looked like a plastic toy) but the amount of fluidity to its movement was excellent. It swam through the air, curling around itself, almost like a slow moving eel. They really should have textured it better.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll in all itu0026#39;s one of those budget flicks you wonu0026#39;t mind watching on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Assuming thereu0026#39;s nothing else to do.”