Story:
Arnold Schwarzenegger vs Jackie Chan? Not a battle I thought I’d wanted, but now that it exits I could not be happier!
Plot: The English traveller Jonathan Green receives from Peter the Great an order to map the Russian Far East. He sets out for a long journey full of incredible adventures that will eventually lead him to China. 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 king of all dragons, 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 asceticism of the scientist or the old black magic that has seized power of Eastern lands?
So back in 2014 a Russian film called Viy was released that was loosely based on Nikolai Gogol’s classic 1835 horror novella of the same name. And by loosely I mean they’ve basically changed the entire story (and not in a good way) and made an over-the-top computer special effects-heavy mess of a film. So now we have a sequel in the shape of The Mystery of Dragon’s Seal, or The Mystery of the Iron Mask…or Viy 2….or Journey to China….basically, this film for some reason has various titles so it is hard to pin-point which one is the main one. Seriously, check on Wikipedia, IMDb or the movie’s marketing, this film has multiple titles. Why? Well, to be honest “why?” is a question one can ask a lot when it comes to this movie. Why was this sequel made in the first place? And for some reason with this sequel Russia has teamed up with China to both co-finance and produce it, and the result is very strange to say the least.
If I had one word to describe this film it would be random. Don’t worry, you don’t need to watch the 2014 Viy film to understand what is going on here, as it is a standalone story, though I wouldn’t say this movie even has much of a story. More like a series of vignettes and random events and side-plots that are meshed together to fill up the 2 hour run-time, and it’s ridiculous, over-the-top, and, as I mentioned earlier, very random. None of it really makes sense, and it takes inspiration and steals ideas from other material like it’s nothing. There’s the whole ordeal with the man in the iron mask, which, for those of you who know your history, was originally the mysterious prisoner who was held in various French prisons in the latter half of the 17th century rumoured to be the older, illegitimate brother of Louis XIV. Well in this movie the man in the iron mask is the Russian Tsar Peter the Great who’s imprisoned in the Tower of London by Arnold Schwarzenegger. That’s right. it’s that kind of movie! And as a whole the movie definitely has a big Pirates of the Caribbean vibe to the whole thing, as well as merging various Chinese fantasy flicks together into one. The result is quite messy and though I enjoyed certain scenes and characters, there were many times where I felt flat-out bored.
From a technical stand-point this movie does also disappoint, and though I am aware that this thing doesn’t have a Hollywood budget, the abundant use of green screen here is uncanny, and the entire thing looks so fake. Also, whoever did the sound editing and mixing really needs to reconsider their career path, as the sound mixing between camera shots and scene transitions was extremely uneven. That being said on the other hand there were some really nicely looking sets and costume designs, and the dragon that appears at the end of the movie, though nothing spectacular, still had a nice design to him. At least he looked more interesting that the very uninspiring Smaug from The Hobbit films.
The parts of the film that do really leave an impression are the participation of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan. These two are absolute scene-stealers, and you can tell that they were having just as much fun on set as we are watching them. And as I mentioned earlier, seeing a battle between the terminator himself and the dude from Shanghai Noon was not something I thought I wanted to see, but boy was I game for it when it happened on screen. It is a shame that both of these actors are in the movie for about 20 minutes in total (even though the marketing makes them look like the leads), but the time they are on screen does indeed elevate the film to another level. The sadly recently deceased Rutger Hauer also makes a fleeting cameo alongside Charles Dance, but none of the cast members really leave as big of an impression as Arnie and Jackie. Also, the main lead played by Jason Flemyng came across very flat and dull. All in all, Journey to China (or whatever it is called) is a disappointing mess that is only worth seeing for the pairing of Schwarzenegger and Chan, or for people who want to see a mindless popcorn flick with some enjoyment value and that happen to understand either Russian or Chinese. Actually, that reminds me, the dubbing for this film is atrocious. With the entire cast originating from various countries, the movie dubs everyone according to the movie’s distribution location, and that comes as a big distraction. Then again, I feel like the film’s producers are very aware that they were making a trashy stupid movie in the first place, so there is only so much valid critique I can give to this thing. At the end of the day it’s all done just for fun.
Cast:
- Jason Flemyng as Jonathan Green
- Helen Yao as Cheng Lan
- Jackie Chan as Master Et Al
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as James Hook
- Yuri Kolokolnikov as Tzar Peter the Great
- Anna Churina as Miss Emma Dudley
- Charles Dance as Lord Dudley
- Rutger Hauer as The Ambassador
- Martin Klebba as Captain
- Christopher Fairbank as Grey
- Igor Jijikine as Dead Cossack
- Robert Gilabert Cuenca as Tower Guard
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