Starring Jin Zhang (Master Z: Ip Man Legacy), UFC star Anderson Silva, JuJu Chan, (Wu Assassins, Savage Dog). Directed by Fruit Chan. The Invincible Dragon tells the story of an undercover cop and a rising star in the police force with a dragon tattoo who is assigned to a mysterious case of a serial killer that only kills female cops all in the same way.
So, after hearing of Invincible Dragon making waves and the fact that its starred fight scenes between Jin Zhang of Ip Man fame and UFC superstar Anderson Silva before a proper synopsis was even available. It got everyone hyped. But does it live up to the hype?
The making of this movie was chaotic in the broadest sense. Undergoing reshoots or heading back to the editing room numerous times. It’s just a shame they didn’t edit the story. It got to a point where I thought the whole thing would be cancelled but it’s finally here and surprise, surprise it’s a let-down.
The entire movie seemed to live off the premise of fight scenes between Zhang and Silva. The movie is not quite sure what it wants to be. Gritty in parts and comedic in others but doesn’t really succeed in either.
Invincible Dragon starts with undercover cop Kowloon (Zhang) with some guyliner on for some reason and a terrible top knot being tortured by a crime boss. The boss spots his tattoo and wants to know who created such an exquisite job. This leads Kowloon to tell the story through a flashback of how he went swimming as a kid in a lake and encountered a huge Chinese dragon underwater. The dragon then played with him letting him ride him and he got the dragon tattoo to honour the dragon. So, yea I guess the movie has dragons in it. The crime boss laughs, Zhang escapes, takes everyone down, chases the boss where they end up in someone’s bridal banquet. He catches him and shoots his hand off in front of everyone at the wedding.
Kowloon’s behaviour gets him stationed in a small police station on the hillside where a serial killer is murdering policewomen. They try to set a trap for the killer with a police women under heavy surveillance. Kowloon’s fiancé happens to be on the stakeout too and before you can say (What’s in the box?) The stakeout goes wrong and Kowloon’s fiancé is taken. Kowloon gives chase and is shot. Bizarrely he is then suspended for getting shot.
This sends Kowloon into despair. We catch up with Kowloon a year later and he is given the clique homeless look with longer hair and a little beard. The murderer moves onto a town called Macau. Kowloon having no authority starts investigating on the sly but still reporting to his superiors. After a female cop who goes to a gym is murdered, this leads Kowloon to bump into old-time rival Alexandra Sinclair (Silva) who he defeated in an MMA match. Sinclair runs the gym with his wife and trainer Lady (Juju Chan).
By this point, I’m starting to wonder why he or the movie is called The Invincible Dragon. With a name like that you would think the movie would be about an unbeatable martial arts fighter maybe even the skills was granted to him by the dragon he encounters, with tons of fights, kicking as much arse as possible before meeting a fellow unbeatable fighter antagonist who he has to overcome. But nothing of the sorts. It’s at least an hour before the first proper fight happens which is nothing spectacular.
Nothing seems invincible about Kowloon who seems to have this rep and a legend about him but you never really find out why. Because he has a cool tattoo? Because the other cop’s kind of believe the story he tells about meeting a dragon?
Even the end fight is seriously nothing to write home about. I was left thinking is this trying to be a comedy fight like a Jackie Chan movie. As mentioned earlier the movie seems to suffer from an identity crisis, is it a thriller? Is it a dark comedy? Is it a martial arts fantasy? And to be fair it’s doesn’t really pull off any. Zhang is a rising star and I’d say Invincible Dragon can be well and truly swept under the rug. In terms of the choreograph Anderson Silva seemed to fit well with the fight scenes and I can see him starring in many martial arts movies in the future.
In conclusion, this just feels like a missed opportunity, it could have been a crazy martial arts fantasy movie with dragons, crazy fights, bonkers story and an unstoppable antagonist that can only be beaten by our unbeatable protagonist The Invincible Dragon. Kind of like Dragons Tiger Gate. But unfortunately, we get a mediocre martial arts dark comedy thriller. In all honesty, I’d give this one a miss.
Rating: 2/5 Belts
