Being a big fan of the genre and enjoying “V for Vendetta”I was stoked to see this movie. Knowing very little about the story, I figured it would fall into the typical one man on a personal journey taking on the world. It is. Now the rest of the necessary checklist.
All you need is:
- Fighting in the rain
- Finding a female ally
- Fighting a foreigner (Mostly White Americans or Russians)
- Falling in love Falling in battle
- Rising from the loss with love and striking down the final boss
- Awesome training montages
- Crazy fight sequences with an array of different weapons.
Not to worry Ninja Assassin at it all. James McTeigue ( V for Vendetta and The Invasion) moves around the story at lighting speed and pauses on well choreographed fight scenes adopting the same visuals as “V.” The CG is a little distracting during the opening melee with heads getting cut in half and legs being taken off but lightens up as the film goes and trade over-the-top CG for some actual fighting.
The film centers on Raizo (Rain, Speed Racer) an assassin in a forgotten tribe lost in the mountains of China. Taken at birth and trained in the way of the ninja he rapidly shows his skill and potential to be a leader. We jump around his early years and piece together his past loves and rivals. Then enter Mika (Naomie Harris, 28 Days Later and Pirates 1-3) a reporter for Europole who stumbles upon the hidden world of assassins. As she digs deeper into this underground world things become more dangerous for her and her on the fence about the whole “conspiracy”partner Mazlow. (Ben Miles, Speed Racer and V for Vendetta) She soon realizes that she is the next target of these assassins. So he must trust the enemy or die. Throw in the above mentioned must haves, stir and you get the rest of the movie.
This movie despite it obvious faults does entertain. I really enjoyed Rain’s performance as the tortured ninja and would think twice about challenging him to a handstand push up conteston a block of nails. I suggest going into this movie knowing that you are going to get a fast story and a lot of blood and if you can handle that, you’ll enjoy it.
