Stars Jackie Chan, Callan Mulvey, Tess Haubrich, Show Lo, Erica Xia-Hou, Nana Ou-Yang, Directed by Zhang Li Jia For an action star who keeps saying he’s stepping back from action movies or hard stunts, Jackie Chan seems as active as ever. Sure there’s more grey in his hair to show off his age, and the super risky stunts have been scaled back, but it doesn’t seem to stop him from having fights atop the Sydney Opera House before taking a tumble down the curved roof. Bleeding Steel may also be Chan’s first foray into the sci-fi rely although it seems like he’s testing the waters by dipping his toe in. The main villain (Callan Mulvey) makes his first appearance looking a little like Darth Vader without the helmet on (at first), but not really… before looking more like a member of the Borg collective later on in the movie, but not really. He’s supposed to be what they call a “bioroid” (I suppose, “biological android”? instead of “cyborg”) complete with a metal heart and some kind of smart blood. That blood becomes the MacGuffin he’s after, supposedly in one other person who Chan’s character has to protect. While the Sci-Fi trappings are there and really no worse than any other SyFy or independent DTV movie these days, the story it hangs on hits all the marks you’d expect. To reveal more of the story would be to spoil some of the plot and (mostly predictable) “surprises” along the way, although there is a cohesiveness to the plotting. Of course, the villains have some super-human ability to turn up when you’d expect without much explanation how they found out about a place or how they got there in the first place. We’ll just chalk it to movie logic, applicable too to the villain’s main transport. It looks impressive but we don’t see it in action, we just have to accept it does what it does. The action is serviceable, but quite below par one might expect from a movie with Jackie Chan, even if you’d allow for him ageing gracefully. It just leaves most of the choreography a little uninspired. Maybe he’s trying out new crew on his stunt team? Maybe it’s within the story that these are not meant to be super-skilled fighters? We’ve been conditioned to expect so much from his previous movies or even Hong Kong movies of the like. Ultimately, if you’re a fan of Chan’s, you may find this forgivable and entertaining, or you may find it sad as he tries to cling on to roles that should be past his prime. The man does keep busy tho. This is his third live action film this year (and two more animated features bring the total to 5). For me, it’s an average action flick that may be okay as a time-waster, but nothing really stands out. Rating: **1/2 / 5 Find the best online deals here. | Barnes and Noble | Google Play Store | Book Depository Discover more about the books here. Please Support.
1 Comment
Tang PS
12/24/2017 08:04:19 pm
Way better than watching TLJ which seemingly sad to watch.
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