Iceman 3D | 2/5

SINGAPORE — Donnie Yen’s leading role in Iceman 3D hardly packs a punch. Yen stars as a skilled warrior from the Ming Dynasty who, after being wrongly accused of treason, is frozen in time when an avalanche hits during a battle that ensues between him and his three best friends. Yen is thawed out 400 years later a la Captain America (and even armed with the same righteousness) in modern day Hong Kong, together with his three childhood buddies-turned-nemeses.

While he seeks to find the Golden Wheel of Time to redeem his ruined reputation scrawled into history books, Yen’s motives grow increasingly muddled as the plot unfolds, especially with his default stoic exterior already being so indecipherable.

Director Law Wing-cheong (Punished), while crafting a storyline that would make (partial) sense, neglected the fight scenes most would feverishly be awaiting. The story is jumbled, confused and filled with pregnant pauses where Wing-cheong injects anything but the delicious action-filled sequences synonymous with Donnie Yen’s name.

But devout fans, don’t despair. Although few and far between, the fight scenes are visibly well-crafted (watch out for the bar fight) and choreographed by Yen himself. But Iceman 3D is more sci-fi-meets-romance than action flick, with a relationship blooming between the ancient warrior and Huang Shengyi (The Sorcerer And The White Snake), in whose house he takes refuge.

While Wing-cheong attempts to mesh in some humour, albeit in some painfully cheesy lines, the actors’ earnest deliveries were laudable, especially that of Wang Baoqiang (Fire Of Conscience), whose lines were almost as out-of-place as an exceptionally cringe-worthy scene involved some Western cameos.

Although it was amusing to see how olden day fighting could be innovatively merged with new age weaponry, seeing martial artist Simon Yam (Ip Man) just brandishing his guns (literally) didn’t do justice to his talent. The visual effects, too, put the fine cinematography (save for a very uncalled for up-the-crotch shot) to shame.

This 3D remake of Clarence Fok’s 1989 film The Iceman Cometh is barely above average, with bad lines and a storyline that seems carefully thought out but still too feeble to make proper sense. That would be perfectly acceptable if Wing-cheong made up for it in kind with juicy fight scenes.

(PG13, 90 mins)