Bleeding Steel

Year: 2017
Director: Leo Zhang
Cast: Jackie Chan, Callan Mulvey, Show Lo, Erica Xia Hou, Nana Ouyang, Tess Haubrich


Plot: A dangerous man who possesses strength and invulnerability thanks to a top secret bio project, hunts down the scientist in charge and the rest of his research. However, a cop whose daughter is terminally ill, uses the research to save her and tries to keep her out of the man's clutches 13 years later when he resurfaces and tries again.


Review: Jackie Chan in a sci-fi movie? Well, this is rather new territory for him, but certainly better than his attempts to merge his culture with other cultures recently. But honestly, I'm giving semi faint praise here.

Actually, Bleeding Steel isn't half bad. For the most part, Chan is all business and in serious mode. This isn't one of those films where he does his comedic slapstick stuff. Like The Foreigner, he's mostly serious, except for a few moments here and there. He's also the best actor in the film as everyone else either tries too hard (Show Lo) or not enough (Nana Ouyang, Callan Mulvey, Tess Haubrich). Erica Xia Hou, who plays Chan's subordinate and also wrote the screenplay, excels in a few fight sequences but is rather wooden in the acting department.

The action sequences are the highlight of the film for sure. While the opening firefight seems a bit messy in its execution, it looks quite good with multiple explosions and some good stunt work from Chan and his team. There's another sequence where Chan slides down the roof of the Sydney Opera House, which is a nice throwback to some of the crazy stunts he had done in his youth. Chan certainly hasn't lost his edge here. The rest of the action are just so-so as they come with a significant amount of CGI, which really isn't Chan's forte.

The weakness of the film is certainly the plot and dialogue, which involves a lot of corny lines and borrowed ideas from other sci-fi films. Mulvey's villain looks like a blatant ripoff of the Borg from Star Trek, and his goons are dressed like Robocop (the remake, not the original). Show Lo, who plays Chan's sidekick Leeson, is mostly unfunny in his attempts at comedy, save for a scene where he saves Chan's daughter from a group of troublemakers. Haubrich, while not excelling in terms of acting, holds her own in the action department, looking quite good in her scraps against Chan.

Overall, Bleeding Steel is a decent effort from Chan and company, but science fiction really isn't his wheelhouse. He ought to just stick to tried and true action movies he's known for. (6.5/10)