Climbing Higher Pictures

Can the sword weilding, B-movie inspired martial arts film from the guys who brought you The Matrix (and its two sequels) and V for Vendetta rise above cliche and set the standard for the kind of action movie fluff that audiences have been waiting for, or does it fall to the depths of a Dragonball Evolution style tragedy? Find out below:

Ninja Assassin Review

By Ryan Hamelin

Movie Grade: B-

Do not walk into Ninja Assassin expecting extensive character development, deep moral messages, or intricate plot arcs. Believing you would find any of these things in a film titled Ninja Assassin was foolhardy to begin with. The Wachowski Brothers know this, and they have created the kind of script that gives you everything you’d want in a B-grade martial arts film on an A-grade budget, a series of expertly choreographed fight scenes between Ninja warriors, and more than enough slow motion limb separation to get the adrenaline pumping.

The back-story, such as it is, follows our hero Ninja in his eventual escape from the training compound where he was taken as an orphan, rebelling against his master and all his brother Ninjas. Yes there’s a cheesy love story romance in his past that inevitably turns out rather badly for the girl involved, and is supposedly the source of his pain in the present, but we never buy it for more than a few seconds at a time, and the editor never lingers on the flashbacks for longer than that, knowing that you really only need the slightest emotional baggage before returning to what the target audience is actually interested in, Ninjas kicking all kinds of ass.

The film was directed by James McTeigue, the cinematographer for the Matrix trilogy and director of the Wachowski’s adaptation of V for Vendetta. This isn’t anyone’s idea of quality directorial work, as probably wasn’t the intention, but knowing how well McTeigue can handle emotional scenes with his first film only make the ones in Ninja Assassin fall even flatter. The exception is that of Rain who players our protagonist Ninja and manages to deliver even the worst dialogue with the kind of smirk that pulls the audience back in for the next round of bullets and bloodshed.

The story is actually needlessly complex to a certain degree, hinting at a whole host of back door dealings and corridors of power type conspiracies which we never see any real evidence of in the compact 93 minute runtime. Watching Ninja Assassin was akin to living through a love letter to Ninja fans. It’s self-conscious of how ludicrous its plot and action are, and does everything it can to get the predictable stuff out of the way before you put too much thought into the gaping plot holes. For the most part, it succeeds at being a completely entertaining and rollicking ride at the theater, not unlike Wanted was a couple summers ago. Applying the strictest analytical analysis to a movie like this is absolutely pointless, as it isn’t seeking to be great cinema in the first place. It’s just looking to be a whole lot of fun, and judging by the hoots, hollers, and applause at our screening, it’ll be quite the hit with audiences for that very reason.

This isn’t to say that as entertainment, the film doesn’t have its drawbacks. For one, the fact that Ninja’s fight best at night creates a scenario where all the best fight scenes inevitably occur in close to pitch-blackness. Because of this, many of the best shots during the intense action moments devolve into a muddy mess. When the camera does pull out, revealing the full gory destructive power that the Ninjas wield, it can be absolutely breathtaking. The quantity and quality of the blood on display approaches the levels of other R-rated fare like 300 before surpassing them entirely in the following shot. You’ve never seen this much red in anything this side of a horror film, and the decapitations along with appendage removals are both satisfying and disturbing in their gratuity. There are also explosions, plenty of explosions, so if you’re like me and find yourself easily amused by red and gold fireballs, there’s quite enough of those to go around too. The whole cop ally storyline wears thin pretty quick, as do the majority of the other actors who aren’t among the race of super ninjas. You’ll find yourself wishing they’d die quicker so that you can get to the rest of the movie.

In other words, what we have here is the beginning of what is sure to be a franchise of serial Ninja films, movies that live and die in the so-god-awful-they’re-awesome category. I’m not going to lie, I truly did enjoy the hell out of Ninja Assassin, despite thinking I was going to loath every minute of it when I sat down. Don’t count out the appeal of a flimsy narrative held together by various degrees of violence. I guess if teenage girls have Twilight, there’s more than enough stupid fun to be had for the guys on the other end of the spectrum. Check it out at your local matinee, because to pay full price for this one would be close to criminal.