In the Action-movie heyday of the 1980s, stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan lead the different sides of the world, producing blockbuster after blockbuster in America and Hong Kong respectively. While the prospects of a meet-up between them have been wondered about for years on the silver-screen after “Around the World in 80 Days,” regrettably director Oleg Stepchenko's first-full-on tale featuring them is a slight misfire and disappointment
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In the early 1700s, English traveler Jonathan Green (Jason Flemyng) receives an order from Peter the Great to map the Russian Far East. Once again, he sets out for a long journey full of incredible adventures that will eventually lead him to China. There, the cartographer will unexpectedly face a lot of breathtaking discoveries, encounter bizarre creatures, meet with Chinese Princesses, and confront deadly martial arts masters, and even the Dragon King. What could be more dangerous than meeting eye-to-eye with Viy, except doing it again? What would be stronger this time, a staunch skepticism of the scientist or the old black magic that has seized power of Eastern lands?
Now, first and foremost, it must be addressed: Arnold and Jackie are supporting characters in this story. although they do share the screen together in one of the best scenes in the film where they get into a brief but still-enjoyable fight with each other. However, for long stretches of the story, we're following Flemyng's character with his adventures in the Chinese village or his wife's quest to find him. This divergent series of storylines takes the focus away from the two big stars. It's not that their scenes together are bad, but they're infrequent, shoehorned into the first half before being ignored, and their inclusion could've been written out without affecting the main storyline at all.
Besides that bait-and-switch regarding the two superstars, the big problem is the script storyline, which is a mess and terribly convoluted. The problem with the scenes in the prison is that they don't have any real meaning in the storyline and they're simply unnecessary. There's no logical reason for them to be locked up as they are given ludicrous charges to begin with while the whole experience serves as a convoluted means to bring Green's wife to China for the final showdown, which seems to come from a different movie altogether. The shifting action in several different locations, spanning from England, Moscow, and finally China all at once, with different characters separated from each other before coming together at one place in the final act, is a big miscalculation from writers Dmitry Paltsev, Alexey A. Petrukhin and director Stepchenko. The opening scrawl doesn't help to make this one any clearer as for why these different parties are coming together, and with the badly-synched voices making it seem like clues are being written-out by a dub, the end result is complete confusion.
What little works in “The Iron Mask” is down to the high-fantasy infused action scenes. Sticking to the overbearing CGI-heavy sequences where the sense of spectacle created is quite far removed from reality, this sense of fantasy-driven fun has a big role in its likability. From the journey of the ship, through the rocky outgrowth in the middle of the ocean, the Dragon Guards coming to life to quell the rebel uprising or the battle with the series of mythical beings and creatures during the finale, this brand of adventure has some exciting action. The infusion of hard-hitting martial arts scenes by Xingtong in several big fight scenes, plenty of thrilling stunt-work and a thrilling battle between a character and doppelgangers offer some variety to the mix. Since this takes up the majority of the second half, there's a fine reward for sloughing through the exposition-heavy and confusing first-half.
If you're comfortable enough to realize that Arnold and Jackie are going to be on the sidelines for the majority of the film instead of the leads, then “Iron Mask” can be a fun time if you're looking for fantasy-heavy action rather than a simplistic, coherent story. Viewers who are mindful of that caveat or curious about the production style might enjoy this one, while those who are upset about the bait-and-switch or are interested in this genre might not.
