Wednesday
25Nov2009
Movie Review - 'Ninja Assassin'
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 12:47AM | Ninja Assassin
Starring Rain, Naomie Harris, and Sho Kosugi  |
It's all a little too whiz-bang, but James McTeigue's Ninja Assassin is nevertheless a great hour-and-a-half for action fans steeped in cartoon-inspired violence. McTeigue (V for Vendetta) appears to be midway through a larger story, so it's possible this might strike you as parts one and two of a series, and it may have been better served that way.
Still, there's a lack of good, fun, death-defying (and possibly depth-defying) martial arts movies in American theaters, and the few things that Ninja Assassin gets wrong are ultimately forgivable.
Ninjas have enjoyed a mysterious ride through history for hundreds of years. McTeigue's film plays on that mythology to introduce a theory that the warriors adapted over time from feudal assassins to modern ones, employed by governments and the enterprising around the world to carry out contract killings for the current price of 100 pounds of gold.
Based on the slaughterhouses the ninja seem to leave behind following their killings, it's a wonder the assembled constabularies haven't put the pieces - literal and figurative - together yet. Mob killings are usually gun shots, government killings tend to look accidental, but there's no mistaking a ninja kill for anything else. Vivisected bodies, blood-splattered walls, and a surprising lack of inefficiency, given the killers' reputation for stealth.
An investigator for Eurpol (Naomie Harris) finally works it out, however, and begins to link ninjas with political and corporate assassinations stretching back a century or more. Her current case leads her to Raizo (Rain), a rogue member of the Ozunu clan who is out to topple his former master (legendary martial arts actor Sho Kosugi). Obviously, these two threads overlap in a major way.
Raizo's backstory is intertwined with the Europol investigation, and that's where the elements of Ninja Assassin begin to feel as though they're independent stories that don't need to share screen time. It isn't ineffective, exactly, but it's doubtful too much of the business generated by this film will stem from a desire to watch a police procedural set in Berlin. The origin story has our attention, and it should. Now if only there was more of it.
Reader Comments (4)
I told my fiance the other day "How can I NOT see a movie called Ninja Assassin?" As a man, I must see it!
The statement above is fact.
I think this movie could get 1 Damn Dirty Ape and, though i'd pause to read what Colin took the time to write, I would still go see it. The only better movie title would be Pirates vs Ninjas and I don't even care if it got a review.
I like Rain and I really enjoy this film specially the choreography of the fight scenes.