Iron Mask Blu-ray Review
“Iron Mask” is a colossally bad movie.
No, this is not a new take on “The Man In The Iron Mask.” In fact, I don’t even know why it was retitled to “Iron Mask” as it’s a sequel to a 2014 film called “Viy” that is actually titled “Viy 2: Journey To China.” As if that wasn’t confusing enough, there’s the deeply convoluted plot of this fantasy-adventure involving a scientist/cartographer (Jonathan) mapping the world, Jonathan’s soon to be wife searching for him, a Dragon and his magical eyelashes that create tea, a powerful Dragon Seal, White Wizards, Black Wizards, a Master and a Princess, pirates, Russian creatures, Royals, and Peter the Great. Yes, this is a real movie. No, you won’t care how all these elements come together to create a story (if you want to call it that).
From the opening 5 minutes of director Oleg Stepchenko’s “Iron Mask,” I knew I was in for a world of hurt with this cheese fest that is filled with elaborate sets and costumes, cheap CGI, clumsy exposition, horrendous dubbing, funky action scenes, martial arts , sword fights, and embarrassing 3D gimmicks (look a chain flying at the screen!). Sure, some may find it to have camp value, but, to me, it was an utter waste of time that had me thinking “What on Earth am I watching?” on more than a few occasions. This is the type of movie that just crams as much in as humanly possible even though it doesn’t make a lick of sense.
As you will no doubt notice from the cover art, Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger are in this. Don’t get too excited though as their screentime is limited. Yes, the two do have a fight scene together, but it’s a corny slapped together sequence. Only die hards of the 2 action movie legends should seek this out. Somehow, they also managed to rope in Jason Flemyng, Rutger Hauer (in one of his final roles) and Charles Dance into this as well. Really, only Flemyng has a significant amount of scenes here and I’m sure he’d rather forget them all like the viewers.
Video/Audio:
Presentation: 1.89:1 1080p. How does it look? Whatever one may think of the visuals, the film gets a quality hi-def transfer here.
Audio Track: 5.1 DTS-HD MA. How does it sound? This 5.1 track does the action justice.
Extras include a Digital copy, an “Iron Mask” trailer and trailers for other Lionsgate titles.
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