Ironclad
Starring:
James Purefoy, Paul Giamatti, Brian Cox, Kate Mara
Directed by: Jonathan English
Starring Paul Giamatti and James Purefoy, Ironclad attempts to
portray the siezing of Rochester Castle by King John in 13th
century England. Directed and co-written by Jonathan English,
Ironclad is an extremely violent, bloody and repetitive B-grade
action film that wastes its impressive cast’s talent on a below average
script that holds no emotional value whatsoever.
James
Purefoy plays Thomas Marshall, a templar knight who leads a small rebel
army in the fight against King John (Giamatti), following his unwilling
signing of the Magna Carta which limited his power as king. King John is portrayed
by Giamatti as an extremely angry man, so much so that scenes in which
his spit showering rants feature become almost comical rather than the
serious moments they wish to be. Despite his over the top and
exaggerated performance, Giamatti appears to be the only actor that
seems interested in his character. Purefoy’s portrayal of Marshall is
extremely dull to watch, delivering his dialogue so flatly it’s hard to
take any interest in what his character is talking about.
The
weak scriptwriting by English results in the rest of the characters in
Ironclad becoming forgetful and uninteresting. As they are
basically all introduced within the span of two minutes, it’s hard to
even remember their names let alone their intentions for joining the
cause to fight King John. As with most historical action films, an
attempt to weave in a romantic storyline is present in this film,
however it is completely unnecessary to the overall plot of this film
it’s a wonder why it was included.
The
weak storytelling in Ironclad is combined with some of the most
violent scenes in a film I have seen in years. Heads are sliced in half,
bodies are cut down the middle and limbs are dismembered, all completely
shown on screen. Some of these scenes are quite impressive; however the
camerawork during the scenes is so shaky that it’s hard to concentrate
on what is happening. When the camera is more steady however, the lack
of polish and quality to the effects is visible, a possible result of
the cuts to the film’s budget during production. Despite being fairly
effective in some scenes, the overall use of special effects in this
film is below average for a theatrically released film.
Ironclad’s set pieces and action scenes look decent in Blu-Ray
quality, however the dark filters and effects on the film result in some
shots looking a little blurry and difficult to focus on. The audio is
quite good, with a reasonably solid soundtrack to the film making the
action scenes feel a lot beefier and intense. Special features included
on the Blu-Ray only contain cast and crew interviews; not very exciting
stuff, but if you enjoy the film you might find some value in watching
them.
Ironclad feels like it would’ve worked so much better as a TV movie
rather than being theatrically released. There’s just not enough
included in its overall package, with lousy writing, poor acting and odd
casting (an Italian-American playing an Englishman; could they find
no-one better?) ultimately making Ironclad a fairly dull and poor
action movie.
