At least not on the actors. Julius Weckauf, Nevio Wendt and Levi Brandl do their job very decently as Justus, Peter and Bob and visibly work out the small peculiarities of their characters. Justus, the leader with an infallible sense of crime, but also a constant slight arrogance. Peter, the physically tallest and strongest of the three, but also the most susceptible to potentially supernatural phenomena. Bob, the cool analyst who keeps the group together with his eye for the essentials. Director and co-screenwriter Tim Dünschede and his young actors implemented these profiles well, The three ??? are immediately recognizable for fans.
However, Dünschede also decided not to use any of the now more than 220 books as a template, but for legacy of the dragon to write your own story, which takes place in a Romanian castle and draws its spooky potential from the legend of Vlad Dracul and the old walls. This is only possible to a very limited extent. Because the redundant, nocturnal sneaking around of the three young heroes soon tires the audience instead of convincing them with atmosphere or suspense. Dünschede turned with them The three ??? his first children’s film and is obviously a little too worried about scaring off the delicate souls of children. The arc of suspense is so gentle that it can no longer tense fans who are past elementary school age. The fact that Dünschede kept the circle of suspects very clear, one of whom used the shooting of a film to look for treasure in the castle, does not help the story either – most viewers will soon be too clear, who is really behind the nightly activities.
Now even the thin novels in the series do not have the reputation of having any real points of contact with appealing literature, they are mostly routinely written down cases of theft or the disappearance of people. But they work within the three ??? universes mainly through running gags and other repetitive plot points and characters that long-time readers already know – and have grown fond of. Unfortunately, Dünschede and co-author Anil Kizilbuga were not inspired by this and forego the chance to join fans of the trio Easter Eggs and to keep innuendoes in a good mood – even if the bumpy filmed story about Vlad’s descendants doesn’t really want to ignite. Only in the last minute of the film is a kind of shrine presented to the audience, in which utensils for well-known cases of the three ??? – far too late to capitalize on it. The fact that the plot includes an equally big and unbelievable argument between the boys, so that at least a little dynamic can be added to the plot, also speaks for itself.
It is quite conceivable that very young cinema-goers will feel well and excitingly entertained by the events in the creepy castle. Long-time fans, however, are likely to be disappointed by the relatively boring story that has no major points of contact with the rich history of the series. In any case, the moderately interesting case exhausted its enthusiasm potential much earlier than it would have been necessary for the running time of 100 minutes. And the stuffy, routine staging doesn’t help to increase the entertainment value either. The good cast with small appearances by Florian Lukas, Jördis Triebel and Gudrun Landgrebe doesn’t change anything: too much generic children’s crime, not enough ???.
