5.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
He Ying is a loyal Ming Dynasty bodyguard in the Ming Dynasty. While returning from a mission in India, he is accused of working with Japanese pirates by comrade in arms Sao. During the ensuing chase, an avalanche buries He Ying, Sao and other soldiers, keeping them frozen in ice for centuries. In 2014, a mysterious man orders He Ying and Sao to be brought to Hong Kong and resurrected. However, a traffic accident causes He Ying to return to life prematurely. While He Ying roams the city like a fish out of water, Sao has also been resurrected and is determine to make He Ying pay for his crimes. With the help of a kind bar waitress, He Ying sets out to evade capture and clear his name.
Starring: Donnie Yen, Baoqiang Wang, Shengyi Huang, Simon Yam, Suet LamAction | 100% |
Foreign | 79% |
Martial arts | 60% |
Fantasy | 28% |
Adventure | 20% |
Sci-Fi | 10% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Cantonese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Cantonese: Dolby Digital 2.0
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Habitues of Blu-ray.com may recognize “Iceman” as the internet moniker of one of the guys who helps to make all the magic happen on this site, but sadly there’s very little magic to be had in Iceman, a fairly lame exercise that combines martial arts with time travel and other fantasy elements in an uneasy stew that is at times baffling and (perhaps even worse) boring in about equal measure. At one point early in the film, a distressed elderly Chinese man, reacting to a cryogenic chamber that suddenly bursts open to reveal a Ming Dynasty warrior now resurrected in the 21st century, shouts out, “What is this? Freaking Terminator?” Unfortunately, Iceman is in both content and tone probably more similar to Highlander, what with its cross-epochal warriors trying to blend into a modern world while carrying out ancient grudges. Iceman tends to lurch forward and backward rather uneasily, doling out a series of flashbacks that attempt to explicate the character of He Ying (Donnie Yen), a Ming Dynasty warrior and imperial guard whose life back in the 17th century devolved into a series of tragedies, and that was before he was put into a veritable deep freeze, only to be defrosted (unwittingly, of course) in current times. Inexplicably wasting (at least for the most part) the supreme athleticism of Donnie Yen and trundling through too many sidebars for its already rickety foundation to sustain, this home video release doesn’t even offer what was ostensibly the theatrical exhibition’s biggest calling card, a 3D presentation.
Iceman is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Shot digitally with the Red Epic, Iceman is largely bathed in two highly filtered palettes, a kind of cool blue for the contemporary sequences, and a warmer but occasionally sickly looking yellow for the Ming era scenes. Perhaps surprisingly, detail and fine detail are not significantly inhibited by either of these color grading choices, and indeed close-ups can often provide excellent fine detail (see screenshot 1). The yellow tinged Ming sequences often have a somewhat soft look to them, at least relatively speaking, something exacerbated by some of the CGI utilized for these scenes. When not color graded to within an inch of their lives, scenes in the contemporary portions of the film can pop with really excellently vivid and accurate looking color (see screenshot 2). Contrast and black levels are both solid and consistent and there are no issues with compression artifacts.
While this release of Iceman does include an English dub in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, all but the most subtitle averse will want to stick with the original language version, also available in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. (Interestingly, this is the rare Well Go USA release with some other languages, including Spanish and French, perhaps indicative of the film's marketing efforts to position this piece globally based on Yen's star power.) The original language mix offers some excellent surround activity from the first chaotic scene which includes everything from a truck smashing over a bridge to the whoosh of a long sealed cryogenic tube opening to discharge its former occupant. The action sequences are filled with great sound effects as well, all of which typically zing through the side channels as fists and feet fly. Dialogue is very cleanly presented, and there are no problems of any kind to report.
Even Donnie Yen's ardent fan base may be largely bored by the frenetic but rarely involving Iceman. While having absolutely no connection whatsoever to Eugene O'Neill's play, Iceman is actually a remake of a much more exciting film called The Iceman Cometh. This version evidently thought gussying things up with lots of (middling) CGI and 3D effects might help to overcome its lumbering structure and oddly staged action elements. The results are too inconsistent to ever really resonate, unfortunately. Fans of the film will be pleased to know technical merits are very strong on this release.
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