Director: James McTeigue(V for Vendetta)
Story: Matthew Sand
Screenplay: Matthew Sand, J. Michael Staczynski
Producers: Grant Hill, Joel Silver, Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Starring: Rain, Naomie Harris, Shô Kosugi,
MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong bloody stylized violence throughout, and language.
Running time: 99 min.
(2.5/5)Shortly after I returned home from the theatre today I posted the following status on Facebook:
… just got back from Ninja Assassin and while the movie may look good the fight scenes are all style (and blood) over actual fighting. For every ooh and ahh I heard from the audience I was thinking of B13, Chocolate, Old Jackie Chan, Ong Bak and 30 some other Asian movies that just feel so much more real.
I don’t want you to get me wrong. I did not come away really disliking Ninja Assassin, I just came away feeling somewhat empty and unfulfilled with the thought that by tomorrow I will have forgotten the majority of what happened during it.
Ninja Assassin tells the story of Raizo, a ninja, Raizo (Rain) who has turned his back on his ninja clan and Mika (Naomie Harris) a researcher for Europol, a multi-government police force. Mika has uncovered evidence of a secret order of Ninja lead by none other than Shô Kosugi (Ozunu) or at least a character played by him. It seems that neither the government nor the ninja’s themselves want their existence known so they attempt to kill her. Fortunately, Raizo wants to keep her alive so that he can track down and kill Ozunu. Yes, this sounds like an amalgamation of several 80’s ninja flicks and I could have sworn that I was watching American Ninja for a few seconds when the climax of the movie starts.
As I’m writing this review, I am realizing that I wanted something different than what Ninja Assassin has to offer. I wanted the blood, yes there is a lot (and I mean a real lot of blood) but I also wanted to see actual real martial arts and action. This movie doesn’t really offer that. Sure there are lots of fight scenes but I just had the feeling that I was watching a CGI version of a real fight scene. I wanted to see the next Ong Bak, Chocolate, Drunken Master or District B13 and I really should not be expecting that. Ninja Assassin is simply meant to be a fun over the top homage to 80s martial arts with much more blood added, and you know what… it actually does succeed at that. I had a big smile when the soldiers stormed the ninja base and I enjoyed seeing Kosugi on the screen after all these years.
Unfortunately though, that isn’t the movie I wanted and because of it I will likely forget everything about it within a few days. Seeing CGI fights does nothing for me and the story has all the weaknesses of those 80s ninja flicks that it pays homage to but without really going into the camp factor which would have made it all the more enjoyable. In the end I walked away from a big blockbuster action flick with a small smile on my face but not really feeling like I experienced what a movie that is called Ninja Assassin really should have been.
This discussion currently has 11 responses.
November 30, 2009
well at least the poster is pretty awesome
November 30, 2009
I think it comes down to the fact that Hollywood sees martial arts as style and look over substance. I see martial arts films as substance over style. I couldn’t care less about the stuntmen looking cool. I want to see them actually hurting each other.
November 30, 2009
Did they cut the eyes off the poster to hide that the lead character was Korean (or in broader terms, Asian)?
November 30, 2009
I gave this a 4/6. I thought it was worthy of a title like Ninja Assassin, just a stupid movie about ninjas vs. ninjas, ninjas vs. military etc.
November 30, 2009
4 out of 6? what the fuck kind of scale is that?
November 30, 2009
6 is the highest. 1 is the lowest. It’s commonly used here.
November 30, 2009
@ 6 is the highest. 1 is the lowest. It’s commonly used here.
well then you should write your parlimentary officer or whatever. 6 doesn’t even divide into a hundred! Each star is 16.66666666667% That’s fucking weak!
Do danes have 6 fingers or somthing? Seriously, you may as well just assign each movie a random animal sound.
November 30, 2009
It’s funny, but I hate the (out of 5 scale) in fact I pretty much dislike the whole assign a number thing. It was invented for print media, by editors and ad people And it is kind of unnecessary when reviews are so short these days anyway.
If I had to pick the scale should be out of 4. Or even 3 is not too bad (as in Bad Good Great)
November 30, 2009
The best movie critic in the world used 5, so that is my preferred scale I think. Actually my preferred scale is no scale. But 6 is what everybody is doing nowadays so when the editors decided to force scales on us, they said out of 6.
November 30, 2009
More stars look better on the poster.
November 30, 2009
You and I are in the same boat John. I didn’t hate it, it was fine for a one time watch but that’s it. No need to see again. Ever.
And good call on the poster Kurt – definitely some subtext there.
All that said, Rain is pretty awesome.