'Bleeding Steel' Is Yet Another Laughably Bad Jackie Chan Movie

It seems Jackie Chan won’t stop making movies anytime soon, even though much of his recent filmography has been pretty bad (The Foreigner being the only good one of late).  Money’s still good, probably.

This time, it’s a sci-fi action film called Bleeding Steel.  In it, Jackie Chan plays a veteran Police Special Agent who goes against a futuristic nefarious organization keen of abducting a young woman (Ouyang Nana) with a mysterious past.  Meanwhile, an awkward but technologically savvy thief (Show Lo) with his own mysterious motivations also wants to protect her.

I was actually hoping that this movie would be decent.  It’s, after all, a sci-fi film.  Maybe the genre twist will lead to Jackie Chan making something fresh.  Unfortunately, that turned out being wishful thinking.

Bleeding Steel is so risibly unconvincing and stupidly corny.  The script is convoluted and nonsensical.  The action scenes are underwhelming – the shootout at the start is the only thing that is serviceable enough to entertain.  There are several moments with shockingly terrible performances and/or ADR work.  Attempts of humor falls flat, and actually feel out of place due to its strange choice of having a serious tone.  I did laugh while watching.  But it was out of its gauche failures.  The sci-fi elements are especially the most comical.  When the villains first appeared – the minions in Max Steel-like armors and the big bad doing his best Sith Lord impression – I honestly burst out laughing by how ludicrous they look.

So, yeah, Jackie Chan can’t stop making bad movies.  But ironically, I can’t stop watching them either.