Blunt blade

‘Dragon Blade is no ordinary Jackie Chan movie with the martial arts hero going ga-ga. This is an alleged historical set in the time of the Han Dynasty where Huo An (Chan), a Hun, serves as a commander of the protection squad of the western region of the Han Dynasty. This region is supposed to keep the Silk Road safe for trade even as 36 nations keep constantly crossing swords.

Prominent among them are the Romans and one of its Generals Lucius (John Cussack) frames Huo and his men for smuggling gold. Tiberius (Adrian Brody) is the smiling villain. Meanwhile, the rambling screenplay by Daniel Lee brings together a plethora of armies, archaic weapons besides bows, arrows and swords. Even eagles are trained to attack the enemy. The climax is a sword-fencing drama a la Robinhood but much cruder.

Huo wins the favour of the Romans by getting his men to rebuild a fortress. In between there are numerous battles, which seem to stop as suddenly as they start. Only director Lee would be any the wiser. If one has to look for credits, some of the army formations are impressive but there is little acting talent to commend. After 127 long minutes it does come to a stop. May be they ran out of breath or raw stock. Or both!