‘Legend’ gets status from action sequences

Let’s get right down to it: “True Legend” should be a lot better than it is.

A serviceable martial-arts flick with a couple of amazing set-piece fight scenes, “True Legend” co-stars Michelle Yeoh (“Crouching Tiger,” “Kung Fu Panda 2”) and Gordon Liu (“Kill Bill”), actual legends among Asian film fanatics.

And the director is Yuen Woo-ping, the fight choreographer known for his work in “The Matrix,” “Kill Bill” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” films that smashed barriers by bringing Asian action-movie sensibilities into mainstream American multiplexes.

Even the late David Carradine, of the TV series “Kung Fu,” makes a cameo.

But “True Legend,” oddly segmented into two stories, won’t be joining the ranks of those other films.

In the first part, set in long-ago China, Vincent Zhao is Su, an honorable warrior who leaves the military to open a martial-arts school. His peaceful life is disturbed by the return of Yuan (Andy On), his adopted brother who’s burning with revenge because Su’s dad murdered his.

This set-up leads to one of the movie’s showy highlights – a kung-fu throwdown inside a well.

In the last part of the film, Su has become a derelict (don’t ask) and has moved to urban China, where he gets involved in brawls staged by unethical Westerners (Carradine).

What “True Legend” proves is that even the most impressive action sequences lose their punch when mired in a script that frustratingly underutilizes the likes of Yeoh and Liu. But that scene in the well is pretty cool.