My Review of "Enter The Dragon"

Enter the Dragon is a milestone martial arts movie that came out in 1973. It is probably the pinnacle of Bruce Lee's movie career. Way of the Dragon will forever be my favorite Bruce Lee movie but this one is up there at the top. I've watched this movie at different phases in my life and each time I have a different perspective of it.

When I first saw it, my eyes were glued to the screen. I couldn't believe how crazy this movie was. As I grew up I got to appreciate the emotion that Bruce emits through simple facial expressions. There's not a ton of dialogue in this movie but yet it works.

The movie starts off with Lee training in the Shaolin temples. He's been given a new mission that involves him going to a martial arts tournament. There he's supposed to thwart an ex-Shaolin member from his crimes against humanity.

When he gets to the martial arts tournament it seems like some sort of bedlam. Everyone is treated as kings as they arrive. There has to be some sort of catch and boy is there. It's up to Lee to figure out what's going on and stop this crime lord from continuing with his schemes.

It's a very simple premise but it's also very influential. You can see it's influence in games like Mortal Kombat but this movie takes influence from James Bond movies. What happened here is that we have a different take on James Bond and instead of a gun wielding spy we have a martial arts expert spy.

The movie is very much a product of its time. The action sequences are pretty cool but nowhere near the quality of today's expectations. Some people going into this might not like it because of the simplistic fight sequences. I for one have a different opinion on this. There is some elements of these fight sequences that should be emulated more in today's action movies. Though it's a very fine line to play with.

There's a lot more emphasis on the hits and the take downs in this movie. Bruce creates extra drama with his body language throughout the fights. The musical score and sound effects also add to the epic fights. Movies nowadays simply select popular music to overlap fights now. There's no orchestra or anyone making the music follow what's going on screen anymore. What we have in this movie is a fight scene with soul whereas today we have highly technical fights but quite soulless in retrospect.

It's a fine line because at times it can get comical the amount of over exaggeration that is played off in this movie. Again it's a product of its time so a lot of the techniques we know today weren't implemented in the movie. We've come a long way in action movies but there is a lot that we can take from this.

There are a few tangents that this movie takes that can feel a bit unnecessary. Some people might wonder why they're in the movie in the first place but I can kind of see where they were trying to head towards.

If you can handle some of the hockiness of older movies you can have a really good time watching this. I have a lot of nostalgia for this movie and still think it's pretty bad-ass. Then again I lived in a time when I understood why these crazy scenes were so highly regarded.

Overall, I still had a great time watching this. I don't think many people that are used to action movies nowadays will appreciate this as much. You kind of have to have some context to understand its significance. Then again I'm just assuming. I have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. It is very fun and if you're curious, give it a shot. You may just end up watching Bruce's other movies if you like this one