I’m not sure what to say about this 2017 Chinese/Australian
science fiction thriller. BLEEDING STEEL stars Jackie Chan, and it’s almost
impossible not to like Chan’s screen persona, even though from what I’ve read
he’s kind of a jerk in real life. The movie is very stylishly filmed, with lots
of colorful, fast-moving action scenes, including an epic fight atop the Sydney
Opera House, but pretty as those scenes are to look at, they’re kind of hard to
follow at times. Chan is effective as a veteran cop tormented by the death of
his young daughter from leukemia during a prologue that sets up the rest of the
action 13 years later.
As for the rest of the story, you’ve got a mad scientist
who’s come up with a way to create biologically enhanced super-soldiers, a
murderous albino arms dealer, a Goth female mercenary who looks like she’s
trying to imitate Kate Beckinsale in those UNDERWORLD movies, a sinister
fortune teller with an even more sinister dwarf assistant, a sleazy novelist
with a dangerous secret, a hustling young conman/martial artist, and a young
female student who has bad guys and good guys alike after her for some unknown
reason.
In other words, the script for BLEEDING STEEL is a herky-jerky mess full of dead ends and unresolved questions. By the end, it kind of makes sense, if you squint and hold your mouth right, but only with the clumsy shoehorning of a few lines of dialogue to account for some of the plot holes.
Despite all that, Chan is good most of the time, the action scenes are fun to watch, and the flashy cinematography works more often than not. BLEEDING STEEL is not necessarily a good movie, but in the end, I enjoyed watching it and give it a qualified recommendation. If you’re a Jackie Chan fan, you’d probably enjoy it, too, even though he’s getting to be a shadow of his former self.
In other words, the script for BLEEDING STEEL is a herky-jerky mess full of dead ends and unresolved questions. By the end, it kind of makes sense, if you squint and hold your mouth right, but only with the clumsy shoehorning of a few lines of dialogue to account for some of the plot holes.
Despite all that, Chan is good most of the time, the action scenes are fun to watch, and the flashy cinematography works more often than not. BLEEDING STEEL is not necessarily a good movie, but in the end, I enjoyed watching it and give it a qualified recommendation. If you’re a Jackie Chan fan, you’d probably enjoy it, too, even though he’s getting to be a shadow of his former self.
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