Oh - and Ni’s animal sidekick, a pangolin called Oka, happily rolls himself up into an armored ball whenever Ni needs a projectile weapon. The screenplay’s most intriguing elements have to do with Ni - the nifty gadgets he uses to pull off his illicit feats the scar on his hand that glows blue whenever he’s close to the pearl. This trio’s quest has something of a Luke/Han/ Leia flavor to it, but the cast isn’t charismatic enough to overcome the generic dialogue and plotting. (Her brother, staying loyal to his people, is with the baddies.) And after Vlad slays the prince, the King’s other son Herley goes undercover, joining Ni and Raven without explaining who he is or why he wants to save the pearl. Raven, a wingless descendant, is a constable who joins up with Ni when he seems to have a knack for protecting the pearl from Vlad.

Not all remnants of the Winged Tribe are villains. (The cutesy CG sidekick of our main hero is the biggest sore thumb.) Diverting but hardly novel enough to win over Stateside viewers outside the circle of hardcore Asian film buffs, it will likely segue quickly from theaters to a quiet afterlife on video. It looks better than many of its peers, with only one or two lapses of taste in production design, FX and costumes.

Three new friends try to rescue humanity from an ancient foe in Yang Lei’s Legend of the Naga Pearls, an adventure that borrows freely from the Lucas/Spielberg/Jackson playbooks without straying far from the vibe of contemporary Chinese action-fantasy.

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