It always seemed odd to me that we don’t see more MMA stars making their presence known in martial arts films. So long as they can get the choreography down I don’t see why they shouldn’t be cast either as villains or heroes depending on what the role calls for. Well Go USA Entertainment seems to understand that a post-prime UFC fighter can still offer up some measure of entertainment outside of the octagon, such is the case with Anderson “The Spider” Silva making his villainous debut as a serial killer in the new flick, Invincible Dragon.

The Hong Kong martial arts film stars the highly underrated Max Zhang as an over-the-edge cop willing to do whatever it takes to get his man, but he meets his match when a black serial killer who preys on female police officers – played by Anderson Silva – begins taking down and taking out any and everyone who comes for him.

This leads to a cat and mouse chase where the two battle it out across the city, destroying everything in their wake.

You can check out the trailer below, courtesy of Movie Trailers Source.

Let’s be honest here, the movie looks stylistically cheap.

The camera shots are either too close or too obscured to make out the action, the set designs look uninspired, and the only memorable clip from the whole trailer is where Silva is launching himself out of the hot tub in slow motion with an arching spray of water captured perfectly on film.

Everything else looks by the books, for better or for worse. I imagine if you really enjoy martial arts flicks then this one might be worth checking out, but I doubt it will make any headlines or rewrite the way we see martial arts action flicks the way some of Donnie Yen’s best have done, such as Kung Fu Jungle, Ip Man or SPL KillZone.

Speaking of KillZone, it’s nice to see Max getting more work after putting in a stellar performance in SPL KillZone 2. I actually preferred the sequel to the original, and the final fight between Max Zhang, Tony Jaa, and Wu Jing was one for the ages.