The Iron Mask: Mystery of the Dragon Seal is a sequel to the 2014 movie The Forbidden Kingdom that isn’t really a sequel at all. Here is our The Iron Mask 2020 review.
Synopsis
Set in the 18th century, The Iron Mask follows English traveler Jonathan Green (Jason Flemyng) as he journeys from Russia to China encounter dragons, black magic wizards and a dragon king during an incredible but deadly adventure. The film also stars Charles Dance and Rutger Hauer.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan facing off against one another in a movie. I was certainly excited to see this one!
The ultimate showdown between two Hollywood badasses.
Sadly, by the time the credits rolled it was clear that this movie hadn’t delivered anything that I was expecting.
Known as Viy 2: Journey to China or just The Iron Mask as it is known in the UK. The movie has had various other titles since its initial release. I can’t help but feel as thou The Iron Mask is ten movies all crammed into one here, let alone titles.
Our core story revolves around the Dragon whose eyelashes grew into the earth and caused the land to be fruitful and tea plants to grow.
The tea plants were popular across the world and they were known for their healing properties. The dragon created the White Wizards to help her look after the eyelashes so the land would remain bountiful.
The dragon created a magical seal and gave it to The Master (Jackie Chan) and his daughter, Chen Lan (Xingtong Yao).
Only these two were entrusted with trimming the dragon’s eyelashes.
Soon a group of white wizards became jealous and turned against the others. These now black wizards were being controlled by a witch who was after the seal for herself. During the fighting, the seal was hidden safely away. Without the dragon’s eyelashes being maintained the dragon fell into a deep sleep.
The witch sent The Master to be imprisoned on the opposite side of the world whilst she hunts for the seal and our story begins.
After the opening narration, we see Jackie Chan locked up in The Tower of London trying to escape past Arnold Schwarzenegger who is the head guard along with his merry men.
Whilst this feels as thou its the main story, it isn’t.
Our core story revolves around a mapmaker Jonathan Green (played by Jason Flemyng) who’s on a quest to draw out maps of the land. We’re along on a journey with him to explore a world where mythical creatures including dragons live.
It’s on this quest that Jonathan comes face to face with the witch herself.
Charles Dance shows up briefly for this film too but it all seems a bit pointless all things considered.
Cramming stars in to sell a film and then not really focusing on them too much at all whatsoever.
There were many people who were saying before the film’s release that Jackie and Arnie’s screen-time in this would be limited. I was pleasantly surprised to see them appear as often in the film as they did.
Granted a much smaller runtime than that of Jason Flemyng but still enough to keep me engaged as their scenes together were quirky and engaging.
As a whole, It’s all a bit silly. No one really knows how much screen-time they’re having and it’s all over the place.
Watching The Iron Mask feels like 10 Hollywood movies were thrown into a blender at the same time. What came oozing out as a result was this entire production.
Contributing heavily to the downfall of this film is the person who did the audio editing. Their job was to turn an English speaking movie into a Russian dub and then convert back to English.
What results is dialogue that is out of time with everyone’s lips. Think old-school kung fu movie levels of terrible audio and on top of that some of the voiceovers of certain characters aren’t even from the same actors!
The film had a budget of $49m and they still couldn’t get the audio right but the visuals are a different story altogether.
Reminding me of such films as The Chronicles of Narnia, The Iron Mask has a beautiful cinematic gloss to it. The scenery and set detail along with the vibrancy and the overall look of the film is absolutely incredible. It’s such a shame that the audio drags the entire movie down tenfold as the visuals are cinematic perfection.
The choreographed fight-scenes involving Jackie Chan and Arnie are incredibly well done.
Whilst awful for the most part the film does have a quirky essence to it that kept me watching.
Another element that does let the film down is the CGI. Feeling like a big-budget movie trapped in an independent movie or vice-versa this film can’t quite decide what exactly it is.
The film contains beautiful visuals that could rival any Hollywood blockbuster one minute and then the next cheap CGI that looks like an Age of Empires mobile game advert.
When the dragon appears it does look beautiful, cheesy but beautiful. Unfortunately by this point in time I’m just staring at the pretty pictures like a connoisseur at an art gallery.
The story and most certainly audio has sold this film down the river.
For a film called The Iron Mask to not focus on the only guy in the entire movie wearing an Iron Mask says all you need to know.
Overall
It certainly feels as thou the Russians and the Chinese had plenty of disagreements on this one.
Sadly these creative decisions have destroyed quite a solid looking movie if albeit everything else is a shambles.
It’s a damn shame as with a clear direction, good audio and editing this film could have been magnificent. Also this The Iron Mask 2020 review would be much more generous.
Kids will absolutely love the visuals on screen!
If you’re looking for depth and a coherent story throughout The Iron Mask you sadly won’t find it here.
The Iron Mask 2020 Review by Sean Evans.
Signature Entertainment presents The Iron Mask at Cinemas and on Digital HD from 10th April
Our Rating
Summary
The Iron Mask is good fun blockbuster entertainment at times but sadly creative decisions have absolutely destroyed the chances of this film having legs to stand on.
