Iron Mask is a b-movie of some martial arts action, CGI effects that are off the shelf, and tons of characters with clunky dialogue. It is also known as Viy 2: Journey to China. This is a sequel to Forbidden Empire (2014) also known as Viy which featured Jonathan Green traveling to Transylvania. The film is directed and co-written by Oleg Stepchenko who also directed the previous movie. His direction is very disjointed, some parts are meant to be funny, but the movie may have worked if it focused on an individual piece like the village. The other screenwriters include Dmitry Paitsev and Alexey A. Petrukhin. Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger are producers, but their parts are cameos.
It is a co-production from the Russian Film Group Corporation and China Film Co., Ltd. The movie opens with a very CGI scene, it looks like early computer game graphics, of a mountain in the clouds in the shape of a dragon. It was meant for 3D with obvious “coming at ya” shots. There is heavy dubbing which is strange because even the actors speaking in English have stilted dialogue and there is no attempt to learn new languages. A narrator explains that this is the Great Dragon. It apparently has eyelashes that creates a tea that heals people. The dragon has a magical Seal that is watched over by the Master, and his daughter, the Princess. A witch and her army takes over the cave and puts the dragon to sleep. The Master and the Princess were captured and imprisoned at “opposite sides of the world.”
This resolves to a bearded Master (Jackie Chan) asleep. One of Chan’s recent movies was The Foreigner (2017). This is the first time that we get a real person in this long sequence. Then, we get the Tower of London in England, guards move through the prison, and a door is opened by a captain with a mustache (Schwarzenegger). There is a chained man (Yuri Kolokolnikov) in an iron mask. The actor played Vokov in Tenet. Kolokolnikov tries to play along with the goofy tone of the movie. There is of course a nod to Alexandre Dumas’ novel. It was made into a film with some awkward sword work in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998). The masked man lays out seeds to capture a homing pigeon. The message is a letter to Miss Dudley. Then, we have the appearance of Miss Emma Dudley (Anna Churina) and Jonathan Green (Jason Flemyng) from the first film. These are the two characters from Forbidden Empire.
Churina has a larger role, attempts at comedy, and action in the vein of Elizabeth Swann in the Pirates films. Flemyng is also known for another 18th century adventure, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), playing Dr. Jekyll. Jonathan is almost a side character, connecting the two films, a hapless inventor which reminds me of Steve Coogan’s Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days (2004) also starring Jackie Chan. In bed, they are startled by her father, Lord Dudley, played by Charles Dance also returning from Forbidden Empire. Another cameo, Dance doesn’t get to meet his co-star in Last Action Hero (1993). The narration is taken up by Jonathan who says he has invented a way to measure distances using a coach which he calls The Fifth Wheel. Jonathan explains that he traveled to Transylvania and then to Russia. He meets with an ancient creature with flaps that reveal tiny eyes called Viy. Still, he is able to escape to Moscow which looks like a snowy set with obvious matte paintings. All a recap of the Forbidden Empire.
The tone of the film seems to be like Van Helsing (2004). He is taken into a party, wants to see Peter the Great, and then taken into a dungeon for his insolence. Watching the fallen Jonathan is a mysterious prisoner played by Xingtong Yao. She was also in CZ12 or Chinese Zodiac 12 (2012) written and directed by Jackie Chan. The masked man writes on the note to Miss Dudley and then sends it off on the homing pigeon. At the Dudley palace, Miss Dudley is busy shooting plates with a rifle when she sees the homing pigeon. She brings the message to her father who is with her child. The rest of the message is written by Peter the First held in the Tower of London. The Ambassador (Rutger Hauer) arrives at Moscow in a cart hauled by several pigs. This is a final part for Hauer and another cameo. Jonathan is taken from the prison and brought by the Ambassador as we see the other prisoners are brutally punished.
He is pardoned by the Ambassador and makes an arrangement to map the East. Jonathan spares the person who showed kindness to him in prison from whipping. The name of the person called a boy is Cheng Lan and rides on top of the carriage with an umbrella. It is a massive carriage that is driven by only two horses. A tree blocks the way of the carriage in a forest and men come out to ambush it. Jonathan is quickly taken captive by the thugs. One is surprised by the flying, furry beastie that sneaked away in Russia. Cheng takes the distraction to go into martial arts mode with an umbrella. The music is strangely uninterested in the fight scene. They are aided by the beastie which Cheng calls a Kho Tchai. Jonathan sends a homing pigeon message to Miss Dudley and she takes a carriage to London. She is looking for James Hook, the captain, and finds him in a pit fighting prisoners.
Three men volunteer to his challenge of reaching the top of the prison. This is the Liu Brothers. They want to go back to China to help Cheng Lan. One brother reaches the top and leaps down to fight with his brothers and James frees all of them. Then, James tells all of the prisoners to exercise in Arnie fashion. Miss Dudley is there to explain a prisoner is the tsar, Peter, but James says the only Russian prisoner is a spy. She wants to talk to the prisoners alone with James listening in. She reads Jonathan’s last letter and the Master is intrigued at her mention of Cheng Lan. The Master tells Miss Dudley that Cheng Lan is his daughter. This leads to a prison escape, James takes on all of the prisoners with the guards, as the Master searches for the seal in James’ files which he gives to Peter for his escape. Peter and Miss Dudley make their way onto a Russian ship that is run by a captain (Martin Klebba). He is known for playing Marty in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. A storm takes the ship so a mutiny confines the captain, but he becomes helpful later on.
The strange part is that the cultural values of the film seem to be locked in that time period. It is a modern film, but it seems like the filmmakers think it is controversial for a woman, Cheng Lan, to travel alone with a man. On the other hand, it is not unusual for Miss Dudley to travel on a ship with pirates. I would imagine that the unusual part is that in all of the years of homing pigeon correspondence, Miss Dudley never mentions to Jonathan is a father. Poor communication. The two groups reach China, we find that a village is defended by Li Hong (Mengmeng Li), and the ruler is the Witch (Li Ma). Li would be interesting if the film was just set as a rebellion. Ma is the typical supernatural villain. The film undercuts the supernatural by having Lan’s face made into masks. The Witch has three giant enforcers that are almost steampunk. Jonathan and also Peter get caught up in the Witch’s plans. So everyone has to sort out what is happening and join the rebellion against the Witch. There is one cool image of waves crashing over rocks in the shape of the dragon at the end of the movie. Iron Mask is a mash up of films, a host of characters using awkward dialogue, and whirling around some strange plot points with some cheap VFX.
Three Dragons Seals out of Five!
#IronMask, #OlegStepchenko, #JasonFlemyng, #Anna Churina, #XingtongYao, #JackieChan, #ArnoldSchwarzenegger
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