Image via WikipediaI was excited when I heard about Ninja Assassin. I watched the preview and thought that it was going to be a modern special effects extravaganza with an old school 80’s ninja movie feel. It came out and the reviews were absolutely horrible. At first I thought they must not understand what the film was trying to do, but then it was reviewed by someone that wanted it to be exactly what I did. They said the movie failed. So, I put off watching it.
The plot wasn’t that bad. Ninjas are real, and they are behind corporate and political assassinations worldwide. Rain was raised as a ninja and bought into it until he fell for a girl in his training group that didn’t. She showed him the way, tried to escape, and was executed for it. Rain then escapes with a vow to destroy the clan. Interpol has stumbled upon the ninja conspiracy and now the two agents looking into it are in trouble and can only be saved by Rain.
Yeah, nothing special but it a total 80’s ninja movie plot. I think this actual plot was used in over 40,000,000 ninja movies in the 80’s. It could have worked. It should have worked. No one was going to see this movie for the plot. So, why were people interested in this movie? One word; Ninja!
This is where the movie ultimately fails. Instead of lots of martial arts with a little mystery and mysticism thrown in, you get a lot of mysticism with very little martial arts and very little believable action. I am all for supernatural ninja. In enjoyed Ninja III: The Domination. I knew the movie had failed five minutes in when a guy was decapitated in a flood of blood spray. Blood spray if fine some movies that aren’t trying to take themselves seriously such as Machine Girl. Special effects are cool, but that is all this movie was.
My criteria for this movie’s success was me. The 80’s ninja films made me want to be a ninja. Even with the mysticism and the shroud of mystery, they made you think it was possible. All this movie made me think about was how computers are able to do some pretty amazing things. Unfortunately, what Hollywood learned from this is that ninja movies are not profitable. They don’t see that it failed at being successful at being a ninja movie. In other words, don’t expect a ninja movie revitalization.
Posts
5 comments:
This affirms my estimation from the trailers. It's now on the AVOID list officially.
I was disappointed as well. Best I can say is they didn't skimp on the blood.
Nick-yeah, I can't really think of a reason to watch this movie. It didn't have anything that you could take away as worthwhile.
Alex-if you like the blood spray, check out Machine Girl.
Saw it, can't speak too highly of it. Most of the action scenes were ridiculously violent. And why did they have a predomeniantly asian cast speak strictly in american vulgarity? Authenticity- FAIL
Post a Comment