Journey To China: The Mystery Of Iron Mask Movie Review

Journey to China: The Mystery of Iron Mask is also known as Viy 2: Journey to China. Iron Mask or The Iron Mask is the released title in English-speaking countries. This film is a Russian-Chinese fantasy film produced by Gleb Fetisov, Alexey A. Petrukhin, and Sergey Sozanovskiy, and directed by Oleg Stepchenko from a screenplay written by Stepchenko, Petrukhin, and Dmitri Palees. This film is the sequel to Viy, the 2014 box office success loosely based on Nikolai Gogol's novella Viy.

Plot

Set in the 18th century, the cartographer Jonathan Green embarks on a scientific and supernatural journey that takes him from England to China. Along the way, he comes across Russian Tzar Peter I in the Tower of London, guarded by the fighter Warden Hook, while his wife Lady Emma discovers the Chinese Princess posing as Jonathan's assistant Chen-Lan. As Tzar Peter flees on a Russian ship, he follows Lady Emma as she discovers an imposter robbing the Chinese people in the disguise of Princess Chen-Lan.

Star Performance

Jason Flemyng Jason Flemyng, born on 25th September 1966, is the >> Read More... , as Jonathan Green, is the lead of the film. His main supporting character is Chen-Lan, played by Yao Xingtong. Chen-Lan got a great chance to shine in combat, defeating numerous bad guys and demonstrating great reflexes.

Analysis

The film has almost all kinds of fantasy and adventurous elements, such as pirates, dragons, witches, underwater cities, alchemy, etc. The movie is very colorful, with a wide variety of fantastic costumes, real-looking weapons and props, and some incredible sets, especially those in China. There are some unintentionally funny moments sprinkled throughout the film. The film is not logical at any point in time. The screenwriters appear to have assembled a series of beautiful set pieces and spent as much of the 49.1 million dollar budget as possible. It is a disorganized mess of a movie with an overly intricate plot and distractingly horrible CGI. It is astonishing how many scenes actors have to dub because the dialogue is not in their mother tongue. Scenes with Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger “I am back!” His career will always seem to come t >> Read More... together are limited. There is one short sequence where Jackie and Arnold fight, but it ends too quickly, leaving you wishing for more where the two can hopefully work on the same team, as they seem to have some chemistry.

What’s There?

• Chan and Schwarzenegger add some star power.

What’s Not There?

• The poorly written script fails to explain many ideas or plots.
• The dubbing is very poor, which is noticeable in the film throughout.

Verdict

'Journey to China: The Mystery of Iron Mask' has the potential to be a fine action-adventure film, but it is only average at best.