I’ve just watched the trailer for Jackie Chan’s new film Bleeding Steel, which appears to be about the actor rescuing his daughter after she’s been kidnapped by a Borg from Star Trek that lives in a Star Destroyer. His daughter also seems to have some kind of mechanical heart.
At one point, there’s even a big fight on top of the Sydney Opera House. A bunch of stuff blows up, too, and I’m not quite sure what it all means. What I do know is that even at 64 years of age and after multiple injuries and broken bones, Jackie Chan has still got the goods.
Directed by Leo Zhang, Lionsgate is describing the project as “reminiscent of 80s techno-sci-fi thrillers” – which certainly explains the very retro henchmen in biker helmets with generically sci-fi stuff glued onto the sides. The whole thing looks a bit like a plot described by an excited six-year-old – and frankly, any film featuring an experimental mechanical heart has my vote after the excellent and similarly insane Crank 2: High Voltage.
Sadly – and I hate to pour cold water on a trailer that looks this fun – but reviews have not been particularly kind. Bleeding Steel is currently sitting at a meagre 27% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the movie being described repeatedly as “nonsensical,” “half-baked,” “unintentionally funny” and “schizophrenic.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but those don’t exactly sound like crushing criticisms to me. Sometimes what you crave is a nonsensical schizophrenic movie about Jackie Chan fighting a robot man to save his mech-hearted daughter. Right?
Personally, I’m going to take a chance on Bleeding Steel. Whatever its merits as a piece of cinema, it certainly doesn’t look boring, and Chan has built up so much cinematic goodwill with me that simply seeing him on screen gives me warm fuzzies.
