Better than expected
Summary
I know there are some ropey visual effects and Bleeding Steel is utter nonsense but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it for the escapist fun that it was; Jackie is as sympathetic as ever and there are several impressive action scenes.
Plot: Hong Kong police inspector Lin Dong learns that a biochemical invention has been surgically implanted into his missing daughter. With help from a hacker, Lin tries to connect the dots between the device, a sinister army and a strange phenomenon.
Review: I held off watching this for the longest time as I’d only heard bad things about it but I figured I would sit down and watch the 2017 sci-fi/fantasy/actioner Bleeding Steel starring Jackie Chan and I’ll admit I had a fun time with it
Yes, it has lots of subpar CG and it’s absolute nonsense but there are moments of classic Jackie here with a few funny scenes and entertaining set-pieces. The opening shoot-out is impressively intense and a fight on top of Sydney Opera House was a major highlight.
Show Lo brought some of the humour as Leeson and I found him funny and an appealing character.
We also get a small role from the always great Brahim; it’s too bad he didn’t get a bigger part but it’s always cool when he shows up.
This is pure sci-fi fantasy so you have to really suspend disbelief to a major degree and if you can do that you’ll have a fun time. Where the film falls down for me is the ridiculous looking villain Andre (Callan Mulvey) who looks like he would be better suited in Power Rangers; his henchman known as the Woman in Black (Tess Haubrich) is suitably hateful although I wish her comeuppance was more satisfying. I thought the futuristic soldiers in their black outfits looked awesome and despite the CG there were still some decent visual effects and real explosions.
The music added to the excitement too and although it lacked a memorable theme it worked just fine for this crazy tale.
Jackie may be looking his age now but he can still deliver the action goods as that is actually him on top of the Opera House so when possible he still does his own stunts. I mean the man is 68 so we can give him a break for using some visual effects sometimes.
Overall, if you tell me you hate Bleeding Steel I totally get it as it is very silly but there were some exciting action scenes and entertaining moments to be worth watching at least once.