Iron Mask (2019)
The mystery of the dragon seal.
I’ve had this on the radar for a while, but in typical fashion I end up going every which way but loose and it takes me far longer to actually sit down and watch it then it probably should have. The initial trailer sold me on the movie pretty quick - Jackie Chan and a old Brit looking Arnold Schwarzenegger. I mean, I don’t care what it’s about or who else is in it, if they had a budget or if I need to read it - I’m in. Whatever you do, mask yourself from the review score, tonight we check out - and I’m going to be real, the other countries have a way cooler title with Mystery of the Dragon Seal, but what I have to work with is - Iron Mask.
What’s this movie about? Well, it’s actually got quite a few threads splattered all about it. We have three dudes in a prison cell that learn the story of a Scientist whose invented a pacing wheel with which to make his maps super accurate in comparison to the competition out there that’s fallen in love with a Duke’s daughter. The duke isn’t happy about it, but the daughter loves him so that’s the way its got to be. He has some misadventures when he thought he was making a map for the Tzar of Russia Peter - that was a lie though. After some political leverage, the Duke helps him out of his situation - but only if he goes further east and not return to Britain, so the scientist gets a nice helpful Chinese local to be his guide and off they go. That’s not all though - his wife is on a quest to go find him, because love and all that, and because of this we get more story with our prisoners - a martial arts master and a man in an iron mask. The masked man’s story combines with the wife’s, as their goal ends up to be to meet up with her husband - as it turns out the helpful Chinese local is actually the master’s daughter and the masked man has great respect for the man. So the wife is in search of her man, the masked man is in search of his master’s daughter to deliver a seal - and when all the stories meet it’s in the middle of an unfortunate conquering of people by an evil batch of wizards and a witch.
I’ll be real - it seems on paper like there is way more plot than it actually feels like is in the movie. That said, it gives solid enough reasons - regardless of how lame they might feel - for all these paths to intersect, and in turn gives a nice little spattering of both legendary Russia and mystical China - oh, and I guess the tower of London too. The locals are nice and varied, although you really find yourself on two landmasses for any considerable time - the final Chinese village and the London tower. Between those is some Russia and ocean-boating, a little desert and forest - but most are along the lines of another part of the ride to get you to your destination than any sort of real importance to the plot. Still, it’s nice to have the visual variety, and the hopping back and forth allows the more boring parts of travel to be largely skipped over as someone is having something interesting or fun happen while the others aren’t.
The characters might be one of the reasons for the reviews I’ve mentioned you should avoid. While I wouldn’t say they are bad, there isn’t any progression in this movie for characters in any real honesty - the closest thing would be maybe a little enlightening of Arnold’s prison guard with the final words of wisdom by the Master. Beyond that, it’s more about the journey then the characters in it - which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does contribute to a rather shallow feeling of the film. Nobody here feels like they are in any different place character-wise then where they started, despite being in different locations or positions. That said, the characters do provide some different flavors - a bit of the British, Russian, and Chinese to be specific. Costumes look fun because of this - even though the main impression largely comes from the period-style setting, so we get Redcoats instead of just another movie with everyday street wear.
The pitch…
The actor’s don’t do a horrible job, although I find the titular Iron Mask character to be rather bleh. The hard part of gauging this segment comes from my suspicion the movie was quite multilingual on set. Look at the British scientist or his wife talk in english, and the mouth flaps line up like you’d expect. Look at almost anyone else and they don’t quite match up right. This doesn’t bother me - I’m just glad I could watch the movie and hear it all without needing to constantly be looking at text during an interesting scene. What it does imply to me though is moments that might not feel the best acted line wise might actually be more of a dubbing issue then it is necessarily an actor phoning it in less literally. For the most part though, it’s all fine in that tongue-in-cheek kind of performance way, which with how the movie presents itself feels totally intentional and I’m okay with that. This thing has no qualms with making fun of everyone - jokes on the house! Try not to get too uptight about the normally fun-spirited jabs on nations behalves though and recall the near two straight minutes of production company logos at the beginning to find that zen of “it’s okay for them to make fun of themselves especially if it’s entertaining.”
The effects department is one of two that really shine here. There’s some pretty CG heavy bits, but honestly they look pretty good - maybe not realistic good, but good enough it’s still enjoyable to watch and not take you out of it because it feels like it fits good. Sure, some dragons, lightning, and even some explosions grace the screen with other various monsters and the likes, but the practical fight stuff is also crafted with some level of care. Costumes are largely good for the setting if not really standout, until you get to the black wizards and things take a really gnarly turn for giving the storms from Big Trouble in Little China power rangers villain getup. They even get in on the fighting action - although they do feel a bit limited by their costumes, usually resulting in one doing anything directly contacting people in a hulk smash kind of way. The rest of the fights are well done, and although some hop about with the cuts a bit, it’s not really hard to follow and provides a nice mix of that Jackie Chan expected smoothness and fun with a bit of practical beat-em-up boxing styles in the prison segment.
Audio is well balanced, and the soundtrack does a good job supporting the movie around it. In a fashion that seems to be a trend for Jackie Chan movies sometimes, there’s even a song segment. So if all the movie is mediocre at worst, why do so many people seem to dislike it? I think in part it’s exactly what the trailer sold me on - a movie about Jackie Chan vs Arnold Schwarzenegger. This isn’t that movie. In fact, they really might as well just be the wrapper of an anthology movie with the time they spend in it - a neat scuffle in the front end, some ending dialogue, and then a couple of periodic cuts to Jackie practicing some kata (or whatever the actual Chinese equivalent of the word would be). People who were entirely sold on the premise of a movie being the majority of those two big name actors would largely be upset by the larger breadth being actors that didn’t stand out as much. The story isn’t bad, but it also doesn’t really offer anything unexpected or super unique - outside of the mention of a few monsters here or there that the general populace might not know about, like the mind reading many-eyed Russian beast. Some people might be far more picky about the plot or the effects work than I as well - or even the acting.
…the sail. Get it? SAIL!
The movie does a fine job of entertaining in my opinion, but other’s might just not really feel it. Be it the effects, the plot, the acting - whatever it happens to be, it might just take a certain state of mind and expectations to really enjoy the movie to it’s max. I bought it on sale in 4k for about five dollars - a more than worth while spending for a movie I can get at least one enjoyable watch out of in my mind - but the general consensus is far worse for the movie then my thoughts. Go in to expect an adventure with some martial arts and some jokes, with a spicing of Arnold and Jackie and you’ll probably be more receptive to enjoying it.