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Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: November 11th, 2014.
Director: Law Wing Cheong
Cast: Donnie Yen, Wang Baoqiang, Eva Huang, Simon Yam
Year: 2014
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The Movie:
Directed by Law Wing Cheong in 2013, Iceman begins in the Ming Dynasty where a Royal Guard named He Ying (Donnie Yen) is sentenced to be executed after being found guilty of treason. Before that can happen, he and a few of his fellow guardsmen who are chasing him down are caught in a blizzard and frozen for four centuries.
In 2013, a van crash unwittingly allows He Ying to escape where the chase that once was begins anew, but not before he takes a massive leak. Sao (Wang Baoqiang) and Niehu (Yu Kang) are unleashed upon the modern world as well, though in the chaos the frozen men are separated. He Ying almost instantly hooks with a beautiful woman named May (Huang Shengyi) who, along with her girlfriends, seems confused as to why he acts and speaks and looks the way he does but never bothers to really ask too many questions. Meanwhile a dirty cop named Cheung (Simon Yam) figures out what's happened here, sort of, and decides to track down the three chilly time travelers - why? Because before they thawed out he had intended to sell them to some underground antiquities dealers on the underground frozen guy market.
So story wise, this is all well and good but Iceman has a few problems. First of all is the fact that it was meant to be shown in 3D when it played in Chinese theaters, but this is a 2D presentation, so as is typical with movies like this, things head towards the screen that might have looked good in 3D but which only look goofy in 2D. The second problem is that the movie spends a fair bit of time building its story and then rushes towards a conclusion that, without spoiling things, is decidedly unsatisfying. We won't ruin what suspense there is in the finale but it really just takes all that we've watched and waited for a resolution for and says… yeah, we'll get to that in the next movie. You can just kind of hang out and chill for a year or two until we get there, until then, enjoy this half empty glass. The movie also has a really bizarre sense of humor - if you want to see Donnie Yen take out a veritable army of SWAT guys with an exploding, flatulent power dump, this is the movie for you. Seriously, that happens.
Once we do get to the inevitable 'big fight' we know is coming, the stunts are impressive. There's a LOT of CGI here and so those put off by that should know in advance that this is not Yen in 'rough and tumble street fighter' mode but Yen in 'fantasy action guy' mode. Keep your expectations in check going in and this shouldn't be a problem. The wirework inherent in Chinese fantasy/action hybrids is in full effect here and so realism is essentially tossed out the window but none of that matters much, there's entertainment to be had here.
Yen handles himself well in front of the camera as do his co-stars. Eva Huang is as beautiful as ever and Simon Yam is as fun as you'd hope for given the types of characters that he's played in the past. There's plenty of style on display - slick camera movements and nice use of color as well as some neat tricks with shadows and light sources to keep your eyes busy even if your brain feels like it might shut down at times. Some more exposition as to how and why Yen's character goes through what he goes through here would have helped, but again, maybe that's tied up in the follow up movie? As it stands right now Iceman is pretty to look at but it feels unfinished, probably because essentially it is unfinished.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The AVC encoded 2.40.1 widescreen 1080p high definition picture on this disc is excellent. Detail is strong, colors are reproduced beautifully and generally the transfer excels in areas of both detail and texture. There are no issues at all with dirt, debris or visual detriments of any kind and the disc is well authored, showing no noise reduction or heavy edge enhancement. Outside of some slight shimmer here and there, the movie looks excellent in high definition.
The main audio option on the disc is a Chinese language track provided in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio with removable subtitles available in English, Spanish and French. The lossless track here is a good one, though there isn't quite as much rear channel activity as you might expect. The score is spread around perfectly with some nice pans thrown in for dramatic effect while bass response is consistent tight and strong. All in all, this is a nice, well directed mix that does a fine job with the movie. An alternate Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is provided in Chinese alongside an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and French and Spanish language Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound tracks but unless you're not down with subtitles, the lossless Chinese track is the way to go.
The only real extra on the disc is a twenty-minute making of featurette that mixes up footage shot on set during the production along with some fairly light talking head style interviews with the cast and crew members. Additionally there's a trailer for the feature and previews for a few other Well Go USA properties. Menus and chapter selection are included and if cardboard slipcovers are your thing, well, you're in luck because this release comes with one of those too.
The Final Word:
Iceman is hard to love as it leaves a whole lot left to be resolved in the sequel that, at the time of this writing, is already in production. As it stands, the movie is a bit slow and spends a lot of time setting up things that haven't happened yet. When the martial arts scenes kick in the movie can and does impress but without seeing how all of this plays out, plot wise it's a little messy. Well Go's Blu-ray looks and sounds excellent though. Yen fans who already plan on picking up the second film can probably jump right it without much to worry about, everyone else might want to wait for part two and see them both at the same time.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
