The Iron Mask review - preposterous multi-national fantasy | reviews, news & interviews
The Iron Mask review - preposterous multi-national fantasy
The Iron Mask review - preposterous multi-national fantasy
Oleg Stepchenko's film is a weird mix of Chinese folklore, bogus history and atrocious dubbing
Director Oleg Stepchenko’s follow-up to his 2014 yarn Forbidden Kingdom swaps the latter’s Transylvania for a fantastical computer-generated frolic round 18th century Russia and China, as pioneering cartographer Jonathan Green
At its core is a Chinese fable about a magic dragon chained up by a wicked princess and the Black Wizards. In a process perhaps only students of Chinese folklore would understand, the dragon’s eyelashes grow down into the ground and re-emerge as a healing plant, called tea, obviously a most valuable commodity. Only the return of the true princess can free the dragon and rescue the downtrodden citizenry. However, since this is a Sino-Russian co-production, exiled Tsar Peter the Great – the titular mask-wearer, bafflingly imprisoned in the Tower of London under jailer Arnold Schwarzenegger – has been shoehorned in as a bit-part player.
With clumsy overdubbed voices in a variety of mismatched accents, characterisations are primitive at best, though Charles Dance (pictured left) manages to emerge with a few shreds of dignity intact as English grandee Lord Dudley, chiefly by speaking loudly and maintaining a very stern expression. His daughter Emma (Anna Churina) is Russian, but that’s scarcely to be wondered at in this context.
With CGI effects which are prone to shudder to a halt at vital moments, the production feels unnervingly ramshackle. Nonetheless some of its set-pieces are fun, like a gravity-defying battle between Schwarzenegger and “the Master”, Jackie Chan (both of whom are on board as producers), and an air raid by rebels in umbrella-powered hang gliders, who fire explosive orange balls at their opponents. The dragon is a fairly spectacular sight once he manages to get airborne, but best of all is a mighty storm at sea, with Peter the Great navigating through steepling, vertiginous waves between jagged rocks.
Clearly, though, this is a gaudy confection aimed at the Asian Pepsi-and-popcorn market. It’s the kind of movie you might watch while making a few phone calls and doing a spot of online gambling.
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