Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		1.0

Iceman: The Time Traveler Blu-ray Movie Review

How do you say 'Highlander 2' in Cantonese?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 20, 2019

In a way it’s almost comically ironic that Donnie Yen is suing the producers of Iceman: The Time Traveler for defamation of character, after a blog post by the film’s producers suggested that its failure at the box office was due squarely to Yen’s ostensible lack of cooperation during the shoot (and, one presumes, afterwards during any promotional junkets). The reason why this lawsuit may strike some as hilarious is that if anything has negatively affected Yen’s reputation, it would probably be the film itself, not anything that came after. The first kind of odd thing about this film is that it is a putative sequel to Iceman, a film which not only “under performed” at the box office but which also came out several years ago, making a follow up kind of a dicey proposition on any number of levels. The second (and third, and fourth, and so on) odd thing about Iceman: The Time Traveler is how completely haphazard it all seems, from a humorously overstuffed “previously on Iceman” recap that begins the film (and which may leave the “uninitiated” seriously confused), to a plot that, to use a hoary cliché, has more holes than Swiss cheese. (You can read about the Yen lawsuit here.)

It’s almost hard to know where to begin with this ham fisted enterprise, but one of the first post- “catch up” sequences may provide a clue. As He Ying (Donnie Yen) starts out on his quest to (re?)discover The Golden Wheel of Time (don’t ask), he mentions difficulties that will accrue in him needing to (re?)find May (Eva Huang), something he feels compelled to do, as she will no doubt be worried about his whereabouts. Except — even as this item is being mentioned (including with some voiceover providing a segue), all of sudden there are Ying and May walking with each other, as if there had been no obstacles whatsoever. And even worse, their dialogue is a completely stilted and awkward sounding set of lines that almost instantly identfies Iceman: The Time Traveler as a pretty major misfire. It's just the first of several examples that seem to simultaneously suggest rather large swaths of the story were left on the cutting room floor, and (potentially even worse), what was chosen to be included can seem almost random at times.

The film ping pongs between Ming Dynasty shenanigans and more modern escapades, but kind of strangely there’s not really any major focus on the actual time travel, other than characters appearing and/or disappearing in puffs of smoke, only to reintegrate in some new era. And in fact there aren’t even any major issues with “time travel conundrums”, other than Ying discovering that no matter how much he zips to and fro trying to change things, “destiny” remains resolute (that’s what passes for philosophy in a film like this).

I frankly didn’t have the courage to revisit the first Iceman to reacquaint myself with this supposed “franchise”, but even with the “explanatory” prelude I still felt like some characters had subtly shifted their motivations from the first film. As I mentioned in the Iceman Blu-ray review, that film had the unmistakable whiff of entries like Highlander running through it, and I guess one could kind of snarkily think of Iceman: The Time Traveler as being the Asian cinema equivalent of the less than stellar Highlander 2: Renegade Version. Yen may or may not prevail in his suit against the film’s producers, but I’d recommend he not use the film itself as any kind of exhibit — anywhere.

Iceman: The Time Traveler Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Iceman: The Time Traveler is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. From what I've been able to glean from some admittedly pretty spotty online data, it doesn't appear that this film was released in 3D like its predecessor, though that said, there are a glut of shots with things like Yen pointing a sword directly at the camera, so perhaps there was some plan to do so (perhaps in post conversion) at one point. This is a consistently sharp and well detailed presentation, at least when some at times kind of soft and even shoddy looking CGI aren't being utilized. Textures on costumes and/or props feature excellent levels of fine detail, and the palette is very warmly suffused most of the time (some sequences, like the almost monochromatic climax, are a bit less colorful by design). There's kind of a refreshing lack of long lasting grading here, though there are occasional dabblings in deeper blue tones where fine detail levels can falter slightly.

Iceman: The Time Traveler Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Iceman: The Time Traveler features extremely forceful and energetic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes in both Cantonese and English. I toggled back and forth between the two surround tracks and didn't discern any major differences in amplitude or overall mix strategies, but as with most foreign films, I'm recommending the original language track, even if it appears that some dialogue here was post-dubbed (and perhaps wasn't spoken in Cantonese during filming). There is some very boisterous LFE utilized throughout the film, notably in scenes featuring the churning "Wheel of Time", but also in a number of other set pieces. Huge panning effects can accompany some of the segues to new time periods. The surround channels are regularly engaged with a variety of sound effects, especially in some of the more hyperbolic CGI sequences. Dialogue and score are rendered cleanly and clearly, and the entire track boasts excellent fidelity and very wide dynamic range.

Iceman: The Time Traveler Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers

  Trailer A (1080p; 1:34)

  
  

  Trailer B (1080p; 1:28)

Note: As with most Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the supplements have been authored to follow one another automatically. After the second trailer plays, the disc is authored so that trailers for other Well Go USA releases automatically follow it. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Iceman: The Time Traveler Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

History lovers who have immersed themselves in Einstein's theories, theories which hint at the possibility of time travel, may know that the iconic physicist engaged in "thought experiments" to help delineate his theories of relativity. Some may know that trains played a part in some of these "thought experiments", and so it's kind of cheekily amusing that the two time traveling nemeses in Iceman: The Time Traveler find themselves battling it out on a kind of cosmic train that is hurtling through a modern day update of the old Irwin Allen television classic The Time Tunnel. Unfortunately, to get to this perhaps unintentionally amusing point, you have to slog through a really almost embarrassing array of awful dialogue and nearly incoherent plot machinations. If I were Yen, I'd definitely be suing — though over the film's actual release. (Yes, that's a joke.) Technical merits, especially audio, are first rate, for those considering a purchase.