Dragon Eyes Review

2nd Apr 2012

A mysterious stranger gets mixed up with a group of local gangs with a view to straighten out the police corruption. As usual, the stranger has a bit of a chequered past which we see more of as the film means to go on. But more often than not, he uses the martial arts skills he has acquired in prison to help him see things more clearly and to straighten out those in need of a good whoopin!

Time to call out the elephant in the room on this one. The marketing of the film’s cover is a deliberate con as it features Jean Claude Van Damme’s name first as well as his picture being quite prominent – But considering he is nothing more than an extended cameo (certainly no more than 10 minutes of sporadic screen time in total); fans of the Van Dammage will feel very ripped off to say the least.

Van Damme barely has time to register a full character, appearing in flashbacks only in the “mentor” role to actual leading man, Cung Le as Hong. Van Damme does get perhaps one pf the more interesting later scenes which has a long shot involved which is becoming almost a trademark for Van Damme films in his later career.

Hong walks through this film with a distance-staring moody glare for the most part. With so many characters coming and going throughout the plot it is hard to get a firm grasp of who is doing what and with whom. But the time you do get a handle on the plot Hong is still barley a cypher.

More amusing is Peter Weller’s corrupt, yet seriously badly dressed, cop running the criminal elements. Weller goes over the top, but does inject some humour into proceedings.

Director John Hyams gives the film a good modern look utilising what digital and filter aspects he can for the films visual look. This isn’t as impressionistic a film as his Universal Soldier: Regeneration; but he has potential for a strong future ahead given a more coherent script.

Dragon Eyes has plenty of fights, often artistically shot (including an overuse of slow mo), but isn’t going to rate highly on anyone’s radar anytime soon except as a show-piece for Le. But oddly enough there is already talk of a sequel!