The Journey to China: The Mystery of The Iron Mask
Now, I hardly watch Asian movies, heck I tend to openly avoid them.
To me they have a single trope that has been used, washed, squeezed, dried, and used again.
Although this is just my opinion, and other folks seem to love it, so I clam it.
But this is my post and my opinion is allowed, right... Right?😂
Regardless of that earlier opinion, I do like the Chinese folks when they star in American movies.
I think the most well known is Jackie Chan in the Rush Hour films.
Cause who doesn't like Jackie?😂
Well, this movie is one that has been on my laptop for a long time and I finally watched it due to the potent concoction of insomnia, a low phone, everything else has been watched and absolute boredom😂.
The Journey to China: Mystery of The Iron Mask 🎭
Plot
The Czar of Russia has been imprisoned in London and his country has been put in disarray. While the Cartographer, Jonathan Green, travelling only east on an exile from Russia comes across the country of China which was also on the brink of destruction by a black wizard posing as the Princess.
Jonathan, the escaped Czar, the real princess of China and the China town's folk now fight the black wizard and her forces for their country's freedom.
God, that plot gave me a big headache to form😂😂😂
Now while watching this movie, I had really low expectations and really just wanted something to use and keep my eyes busy, like I said before in my intro 😂.
The mixture of dilemma's plots and facts really made the film a bit confusing to watch and hard to understand at first.
Despite my saying that, I have to say that it was actually a fair watch and I'll tell you why.
Stuff I Liked About the Movie.
- Comedy.
It seemed like this movie prioritized on their comedy and left everything else, and for that I salute them.
It's pretty hard to use such a plot and produce a high end, adrenaline packed action film.
So why not go with the safer option and give the audience a good laugh?
And I laughed indeed😂😂.
The fighting sequences were funny and clearly intentionally silly.
I think there were some mistakes in the actors though cause some scenes weren't as funny as they should have been, but mehh 😂
Not only the fights, some characters were just meant to be funny and laughed at like the Pirate Captain Dwarf and even the Jonathan Green who seemed a little slow😂.
Regardless, I feel the comedy carried and saved the film😂🔥
- The Cinematography
Now, this is one thing I couldn't help but notice.
The picture quality and special effects were marvelous 😍 (at least for it's time)
The Pirate ship battling the waves of the Atlantic sea and The Awakening of the Dragon scenes are the scenes that wowed me indeed.
Certain other minor scenes and moments that were captured were good too.
It gave the movie a kind of refreshing feel to it.
- The Standalone-ness of the Plot.
Now, someone watching this movie for the first time wouldn't know that it's part of a trilogy.
The second movie in the series in particular.
I didn't know this till I made some researches on it for this post😂.
I think it's mad dope that it can be watched singly as though it's the only movie.
Things I didn't Like
The Incompleteness of the Plot.
If you noticed in the plot, I mentioned the Czar being imprisoned as his country was in shambles.
Well, throughout this film, the Czar didn't once talk nor think of his country, nor was there any other mention of Russia.
Till the end of the movie when peace was restored in China, we heard nothing about Russia😂
Now I know as this is a trilogy, there's a chance that the fate of Russia would be determined then, but as the next movie is titled Viy 3: Journey to India and they face a new set of trials there, I doubt we'll ever know what'll happen to Russia😢.
Well, after all that, I can say that this was a fair film to watch, a nice overused story, but it's sure to give you a good laugh 😂.
I'd give it a 6/10 ⭐
My Instagram page.
Posted using CineTV