Early 1700: Cartographer Jonathan Green is back to map the Russian Far East. He’s forced on to China, where he confronts the Dragon Master et al. The iron masked Russian Czar escapes the Tower of London to a Russian ship.
“The Iron Mask” first grabbed my attention with its unexpected duo cast of Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger and considering their recent collaborations on multiple projects, I was interested in seeing how “The Iron Mask” might prove to be one of their more interesting ones. Instead, I found that it failed to sustain my attention due to its cheesy CGI graphics and overly dramatic dialogue.
“The Iron Mask” may be advertising its big-name actors but both Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger play a rare presence onscreen in exchange for the roles of producers in the film. While the movie divulges into the mythical legends of Chinese mythology, its simultaneous play with the era of European exploration created a haphazard environment for proper storytelling than what seems to be intended. Furthermore, the legend of Jackie Chan’s display of mastery in the martial arts is easily overshadowed by the overindulging, fantastical nature of the film alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comical British accent as a British lieutenant.
On the other hand, there’s quite an eclectic cast that makes up the rest of the film. Xingtong Yao carries most of the presence in the film as Princess Cheng Lan. She plays multiple roles in one without a hitch, offering the only depth to the acting in the film. The rest of the cast failed to capture my attention in a positive light and instead had me cringing at their inability to deliver their lines with an appropriate amount of emotion. Too much was too much to bear to watch.
Another way in which the movie failed to keep me from cringing was its seemingly dubbed dialogue. It became very clear to me that many of the actors’ voices were lost in the process of film distribution for the United States when the audio failed to sync with their lips. I’m not a professional lip reader but watching an actor speak Chinese while listening to English audio is a rather disconcerting experience. Furthermore, not only were the Chinese actors left out of sync but the American/British actors were also strangely disconnected from the audio of the film. Everyone’s voices seemed dubbed over by more mediocre voice actors.
“The Iron Mask” had a very messy plot, switching back and forth between multiple narratives rather than creating fluency in the story. There were very poor connections between the narratives, connected only by the knowledge that a character transcended beyond one narrative to another. However, a mystical journey to China from a European country is what ultimately summarizes the film, creating another illusion that East Asia is comprised of fantastical foreignness to be explored rather than be considered as a living composition of another human being’s life. I am tired of watching movies that glorify the mystical aspects of East Asian culture rather than explore the nuances of their society at a political or sociological level. The film is definitely meant to be more light-hearted, but I found it more grotesque at best.
Overall, the film does not have many redeeming qualities. Perhaps my expectations were too high when I thought the film would bring me back to some of the glory days of Jackie Chan and “The Terminator,” but the story seems to have been more enjoyable to tell rather than to watch. What I found interesting, post-watch is that the film is actually a sequel to the film “Viy.” If there’s one thing that it seems to have done well is to create a narrative that does not require the audience to have watched the prequel. What you see is what you get.
Now available on Digital & On-Demand and on Blu-ray and DVD November 24th
