Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

This movie has its moments but is not strong enough to compete especially since other movies set the bars higher. Bruce Lees own movies are better and IP Man 4 for example has a better feeling representation of Bruce Lee (Recommend all movies of the franchise by the way). The movie is a loose adaptation of Linda Lee Cadwells Bruce Lee The man only I know. With this I mean it is a Hollywood adaptation with some things that never happened, additions or changes that fit a narrative better and even a lot of incorrect stuff. You can look this up if you have interest but I wont list it here. Even the Wikipedia articles name a few things by the way. For itself it is or claims to be the biography of Bruce Lee but sadly you do not learn enough about him. For clarification: There is a lot of things that are entertaining but there are missing parts too like motivations, reasons and parts of his development or even stations of his life. The story itself is engaging and knows which buttons to press. It has immersion and delivers some emotional moments. Sadly it never reaches the heights of better martial arts movies or biographies. The fights are well done and deliver a good atmosphere. There are however 2 big missteps. The most interesting battle is not show except the beginning and end (It is not even a fight if I be honest as nothing is shown). While it fits the narrative or better said is explained it is a letdown. When you think you get the epic final showdown comes another letdown. This is as anticlimactic as it can get. I am not sure if they ran out of time or money here. Remark or fair warning: If you have watched the IP Man movies, the Raid or some of the better martial arts movies this is nothing to write home about to be honest. Just be fair that this movie was produced far earlier so it is an unfair comparison. For the actors we get a good general performance. Jason Scott Lee delivers a great performance as Bruce Lee. Lauren Holly is one of my favorite actresses since Picket Fences and does also a great job. From the others I remembered and enjoyed the performance of Robert Wagner as Bill Krieger and Ric Young as Bruce Less father. I also praise the Green Hornet related characters but cant figure out who was who anymore. With Louyong Wang as Ip Man the circle is closed now as Bruce Lee is now also in his movie;-). For the sets, visuals and soundtrack I have nothing to criticize. Overall this was enjoyable and has some memorable scenes. However it sticks not up to become well remembered or named as a classic of the genre be it as biography or martial arts movie. There are also some disappointing parts as well so I do not rate it higher.