Iceman: The Time Traveller (2018) Bewildering Blockbusters And The Cost Of Globalisation (Review)

This is not what those fearing Hollywood being usurped by China had in mind. Iceman the time traveller – the new Blockbuster starring Simon Yam & Donnie Yen – is inept on almost every conceivable level, much to the point where it would be all too easy to tear this thing to pieces. Instead, I’m of piling on top of the critical mauling that Raymond Yip’s latest has already been subject to – let us look at the why. Before any of that, however, we do need to run our fingers through the overproduced mess.

I was expecting a Donnie Yen fronted remake of Clarence Fok’s Yuen Biao vehicle, The Iceman Cometh (1989). The reality was harsher, instead, I was greeted by an incoherent sequel that spends the first 15 minutes recapping its prequel. Then there is enough convoluted storytelling to stoke the fires of a thousand angry critics, a story that makes no sense with a love interest who is barely present, bad acting across the board, a melodramatic streak featuring the same emotional Chinese ballad, twice. The action is poorly choreographed on the odd occasion there is a substantial fight, and it is over-edited to the point where you cannot see who is doing what and to whom. There’s more, Iceman is a sub-Dr. Strange case of world-bending and time travelling and no character has any significant motivation for any of their actions. And its ending, abrupt as it is, renders the entire film meaningless. I can only think of one word to sum this all up – bewildering.

I approach this as a signed-up fan of historical martial arts cinema, if you are someone who discovered the genre after enjoying the Raid or The Night comes for us, you will certainly find this almost unwatchable. Certain titles from Hong Kong cinema’s wacky Category III are unwatchable, but, at least, they are fun with it. Now, if you subscribe to the theory that films can be so bad they become good there may be something to salvage. I don’t count myself among that company, even so, I was still unable to stifle the laughs when the credits rolled, and it openly set up a further sequel.

As I said earlier, I’m not prodding this already easy target anymore. Instead, a question worth asking is,”why has it gone so wrong?”. And, the answer is one word – globalisation. Back in the 1970s through to the mid-1990s, an era where most of China’s output came from Hong Kong. Hong Kong action cinema gave birth to the coolest actor on the planet, Chow Yun-Fat, and Jackie Chan, the most recognisable modern-day actor in the world. There are also all-time great directors like John Woo, Yuen Woo-Ping, Chang Cheh, and Lau Kar-Leung. These names came up through a system that made films for their native audiences but because of their skill and invention they escaped into the wider world. That is pop culture globalisation how it should work in which talent rises to the top, where Jackie Chan can become the biggest star on the planet and Korean directors can helm Hollywood films and Hollywood talent work in Chinese, Hollywood and Japanese productions. We are all members of the same species on the same planet, this is how it should be – confining ourselves to our corner is to the benefit of no-one.

Unfortunately, doors open both ways – there are good effects of globalisation and there are bad. We can get Korean dramas on global Netflix at the same time countries with a well developed national cinema can be subjected to what we offer too. More often than not those Western exports tend to skew towards the crasser end of pop culture. East to West is finely curated, West to East is not. Here’s one example that I often crank out and its the old gem that Jackie Chan didn’t like his Hollywood years as they were mired by over editing and were too slick by far. In the past decade or so, the norm of Asian action films being edited in a way that put the physical capabilities of the cast at the center has eroded. Asian cinema is becoming more Western. Asian cinema has become more and more paint by numbers, lowest common denominator stuff – at least in the mainstream space. No matter where in the world you go, the winner of globalisation is always America; just look at the music charts or all those “British films” playing at your local megaplex. Such a preferential treatment and one-sided dominance have given birth to waves of risk-averse productions that have been made to appeal to as many as possible, the Iceman is the perfect example. Hollywood has been this way since the 1990s, maybe even as far back as the late 60s (in the studio space), whereas the Japanese, Korean or Chinese mainstream have become noticeably less special with each passing year.

As bad as it is, this is a victim of these industry trends, the product of a broken system. From afar, Raymond Yip’s film as a product is well made. In attempting to appeal to the broadest group of people in both the writing and performance that sabotages the project. Iceman: The Time Traveler is a tragic victim of an industry losing its identity and not an egregious assault on the senses as other outlets have suggested. Martial Arts cinema has always been off in its little corner, with other outsider genres, and for it to be affected by these trends says a lot. That sums up the issue perfectly; the problem with globalisation is that it gets everywhere and no one wins, the fact the Iceman struggled at the Chinese box office is the proof in the saddest pudding.

In trying to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one. Unless you have a multi-billion dollar IP to play with decades of brand recognition, that is.

Thanks for reading our review of Iceman The Time Traveler

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