Shutter Island Review

By Ryan Hamelin

Movie Grade: A

You enter a Martin Scorcese film with a certain set of expectations about character, story, pacing, and style which have managed to remain consistent across his entire body of work. So when I tell you that Shutter Island is not your usual Scorcese movie, there will undoubtedly be a sense of confusion at the concept. My problem is that any review of this film will, unavoidably, devolve into a series of contradictory phrases, as I could just as easily make an argument that this is the most Scorcese a film of his has ever been. The more you think about it, the more you appreciate it, and the casual moviegoer will almost certainly have to see it multiple times to pick up on all the tiny nuances at play, nuances that, to the untrained eye, may seem like errors in judgment or technical mistakes. Only once the film has run its course do you truly understand the deft handiwork of a master craftsman, and question quite strongly Paramount’s decision to push the release back out of Oscar consideration.

I can’t decide what’s more tiring. Having Scorcese reuse a single leading man for multiple pictures, or being forced to repetitively write about how great they are in the starring role. Leonardo DiCaprio is terrific here, and any qualms I once had about his acting ability (or, prior to Blood Diamond and The Departed, lack thereof) have been sufficiently put to rest. The surprise for most of the potential audience will be Mark Ruffalo, who’s added quite handsomely to his repertoire in recent years including the criminally under-witnessed The Brothers Bloom and who continues the trend of wonderful supporting roles here. Add to that Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow as the dark administrators of the mental institution on Shutter Island, and you’ve fully stocked the chessboard. There are several more cameos which help to further elevate the film, but I won’t spoil them here. Some things are better to experience with fresh eyes.

A couple of different people have asked me what the genre of the film is. The trailers seem to lean towards horror, or at the very least, a scary chilling atmosphere. Surprisingly, the trailers manage to not show all that much of the meat of the film. In reality, the best genre classification I can think of is psychological thriller, a chase for answers that never lets the audience get ahead of the characters. The kind of skill required to maintain the tension one morsel of information at a time is where Scorcese really shines here, and like I said before, the big picture isn’t something that will jump out at you early on either. If you find yourself annoyed or even disliking the movie in the early going, as I will admit to myself (I believe my thoughts were something along the lines of “Scorcese’s finally made a terrible movie, it had to happen sometime”) just trust that the longer you hold out, the more devious and worthwhile the whole exercise becomes. By the halfway mark, if you’re not glued to your chair, I don’t really know what kind of movie would do it for you.

Is Shutter Island another Scorcese masterpiece? I’d need a second viewing before I’d let it claim that particular prize. Is it an incredibly impressive entry in the filmography of one of the industry’s greatest directors? Absolutely. Try to leave your expectations at the door, because with the exception of those who have read the original novel, I can guarantee that this will not be the movie you think you’re going to see. Just enjoy the ride, and embrace the power of classic moviemaking all over again. Mr. Scorcese, I salute you.

11) Fantastic Mr. Fox

This is a match made in cinematic heaven. Not unlike the recent pairing of Spike Jonze and Maurice Sendak, to mixed results, Wes Anderson’s wonderfully quirky sensibility seems as though it came into being in order to adapt Roald Dahl’s deliberately twisted words. Fantastic Mr. Fox is both an amalgamation of everything that Anderson has been examining and perfecting through his years as a writer as well as all of the visual excellence and pitch-perfect timing that he is known for in his direction. If there’s any person who should have attributed their style to animation earlier, it is Anderson, as his live action films play on a level of absurdly cartoonish characterization just as realistically as an animal puppet in an underground lair. The jump couldn’t be more natural, and I look forward to seeing him continue down the road he has built for himself here with future projects.

10) Sherlock Holmes

I know what you’re thinking. What’s with all the fisticuffs involving the world’s most famous detective in Guy Ritchie’s new Sherlock Holmes movie? Is this even a Sherlock Holmes movie, thinking, I guess, that such a film has to be boring and brain teasing as opposed to brawny and energetic? Since when does Watson not look like an overweight simpleton, pawing at Holmes’s coat and waiting for the sleuth to expertly deduce the next stage in the case? The answer to all these questions involves a creative team that knows what it takes to make a wonderfully fun an inventive piece of cinema, and a lot of that happens to do with sprucing up and, dare I say it, improving on the shadows of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes which have appeared in adaptation after adaptation over the years. Make no mistake, this is a Sherlock Holmes movie, and the modern sensibility may just be the thing that pushes this one into the status of the “Best Sherlock Holmes Movie” Hollywood has ever produced.

9) The Hurt Locker

This movie is everything Jarhead could have been but wasn’t. A story that has a plot, albeit a loosely structured one, characters that are worth audience sympathy instead of entitled it, and intense, gut-wrenching cinematography that brings the Iraq war more in focus than any film before it. It’s not flawless by any means, but it’s certainly a hell of a lot more powerful than Stop-Loss or Home of the Brave. Credit goes out to the brilliant screenwriting and arresting sound design that augment the handheld visuals and pull you in far more than you would ever want to be. This is not a creation designed for the casual moviegoer. This is not disposable entertainment. This may be the closest you ever get to going to war, and my respect for members of the armed forces has been elevated accordingly.

8 ) District 9

Neil Blomkamp has done the seemingly impossible. He has created an original, visceral, and engrossing science fiction universe that isn’t an adaptation of anything that has come before it. He’s done it with style, he’s done it with heart, and he’s made a believer out of me. From the opening documentary style montage to the emotional closing action beats, every part of the film carries a level of honesty and fidelity that is brutally refreshing. The film doesn’t go down easy either. At this level of intensity, it is understandable why some people may have found portions of the film hard to take. The style itself is very kinetic, and the handheld camera integrates the special effects at a base level, keeping the whole exercise very grounded. Sharlto Copley’s performance should get an Oscar nomination if there’s any sense to the way the world works, but he’ll inevitably get overlooked because of the genre of the film he’s acting in. This is one of the biggest breakthrough performances in years, and it’s hard to believe that only a week prior to shooting, he was just a television producer in South Africa with a childhood connection to Blomkamp.

7) The Hangover

What a ride. I honestly don’t remember the last time I laughed that hard in a movie theater. For Superbad I was mostly too shocked to do anything. This time it was hearty, painful, eye tearing laughter and I enjoyed every raunchy, off-color, ridiculous minute of it. Todd Philips has been waiting for his due for a long time, and after the success of Old School, we assumed he had made it big as a comedy director. Then the sequel never materialized, and Starsky and Hutch left a lot to be desired. I’m happy to report that he is back in fighting form here, and he’s got just the group he needed to make this an instant comedy classic. Who knew that combining Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis would result in the highest grossing rated R comedy of all time? This trio play off of each other so well that they could spend an entire 2 hours sitting at a bar watching people play pool, and I’d be completely entertained. Not to mention poor Justin Bartha who’s reduced to a cameo part because his disappearance is so important to the plot. I want to see these guys take a road trip somewhere else, like now, and I can’t even begin to describe my excitement for Hangover 2.

6) The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

If you’ve ever seen a Terry Gilliam movie, you know that there’s something about his perspective on the world that sets him apart. His projects often suffer from thematic and visual excess, the kind of overzealous creativity that pushes far beyond the subject matter at hand and often overwhelms the story he’s trying to tell. Pretty much since his failed Don Quixote movie with Johnny Depp, Gilliam hasn’t been able to find his past success, in part because he hasn’t had the kind of story concept that can absorb his vision. Luckily for him, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is just the kind of story he was born to tell. It’s an epic yet subtle film, supportive of its subject matter while simultaneously relishing in the quiet character moments that had all but vanished from his recent work. The cast is uniformly wonderful, and the visuals, though occasionally cheesy, have an otherworldly brilliance to them that will make you forget that you’re watching a movie.

5) The Road

The Road is one of those films which you need to decide to watch when you’re already of a lighthearted disposition. The movie itself is so draining and so demoralizing that trying to watch it while depressed may lead to disastrous results. That isn’t a detriment to the film, but more an evaluation of its potency as a story and as an adaptation. Based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, the movie stands above and beyond the scope of what the average post-apocalyptic drama can say about human behavior and the reconciliation of a world where society and culture is but a distant memory. It doesn’t re-invent the wheel, and borrows a little bit too heavily in its cinematography and color palette from the myriad of similar films that have emerged in recent years, but not unlike Children of Men, it invokes the kind of deeper thought and reflection which pushes the medium in a new direction.

4) Up

Pixar can do no wrong. Seriously, it’s getting out of hand. Their new film, Up, proves that these guys won’t settle for anything less than brilliant filmmaking, and I’m starting to believe that they never will. You’d think with a senior citizen for a main character, possibly the earliest animation cliché of talking dogs, a residence in flight due to large amounts of helium, and a roly-poly “Wilderness Explorer” who comments on almost anything, that they’d finally created a story that would be impossible to enjoy or resolve in a satisfactory manner. Wrong. Up is easily among Pixar’s best and follows a lot of the stylistic choices of its most recent predecessor, Wall-E, in its pacing and main story arc. Sure the characters talk more than they did in that film but there’s ample use of stillness and silence to calm even the most figgidy toddler. The movie takes its time, something of a lost art in Hollywood today, and it makes the experience feel even more inspired.

3) Star Trek

This film will make Star Trek cool, it’s true, but not through destroying anything that was great about it before, just by opening it up and telling a story that will emotionally affect a greater number of people. This is the movie that will validate all those years of fans saying, “No really, you should check it out, it’s really cool” and replace that with “Yeah, I’m a real fan, not one of you bandwagoners.” I think that alone is worth the price of admission. Hats off to Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman for doing the seemingly impossible and rebooting the greatest sci-fi franchise of all time in spectacular fashion. I figure they’ve got at least two more fantastic movies left in them, and then we’ll see what happens. Will these be the continuing voyages of a new generation of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy? Who knows? All we can say for sure is that as the U.S.S. Enterprise warps off on its next voyage into the unknown, the future of this franchise looks bright indeed.

2) Up In The Air

There are times in our lives when certain aspects of how we feel, who we are, and what we believe in, hinge implicitly on our emotional state. Days seem brighter when we feel alive and happy, and it always seems to rain when we’re particularly sad. In these moments, we are hyper sensitive to everything going on around us. A well-timed joke, a playful activity, an ingenious piece of storytelling can affect us in ways far and beyond what we’d expect from the medium in question. I’d like to think that the power that Up In The Air has stems from its impeccable filmmaking quality. But with a film this good, there is always a secondary reaction, a motivational lightning rod if you will, that will be defined within the mind of every person who makes the choice to view the film. When everything works together this well, from the screenplay, to the art direction, to the acting and the lighting, a certain intangible quality arises from the interaction, a product which rises far and beyond the scope of its individual parts. When a movie “feels” this right, for its entire runtime, you know you’re witnessing something truly special.

1) Avatar

I have never been the kind of person who is prone to use of hyperbole. Sure, something will be “awesome” or “fantastic” or “terrific” but I never think anything is so great as to be crowned “best ever”, “most innovative”, or “phenomenal.” Today I was proven wrong. Today I saw the future of cinema, and its name is Avatar. The kind of movie that defines not only the time period of its release, but an entire generation of moviegoers. An experience the likes of which I have never had before, with any movie, and I can only theoretically compare to what it must have been like to see the original Star Wars back in 1977. To walk out of a theater and know, as strongly as I do now, that there is an almost limitless possibility resting just beyond our grasp, is not something I can find words for. James Cameron has seized the curtain and thrown it wide, letting the light pour in upon the unsuspecting masses. My only regret is that it will be another 2-3 years before anyone else has the confidence to attempt to follow in his footsteps.

Honorable Mentions

Zombieland

The Messenger

The Boat That Rocked

Where the Wild Things Are

Inglourious Basterds

The Brothers Bloom

State of Play

]]> http://www.climbinghigherpictures.com/index.php/2010/01/07/uncategorized/that-was-one-for-the-record-books-a-look-back-at-2009-in-top-11-form/feed/ 0 http://www.climbinghigherpictures.com/index.php/2009/12/23/featured/a-modern-update-to-a-classic-icon-you-say-sherlock-holmes-reviewed/ http://www.climbinghigherpictures.com/index.php/2009/12/23/featured/a-modern-update-to-a-classic-icon-you-say-sherlock-holmes-reviewed/#comments Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:08:04 +0000 ghm101 http://www.climbinghigherpictures.com/?p=275 There was a time when a modern retelling of a classic literary figure wouldn’t spark quite as much controversy as it does now. From a series of action and fighting oriented trailers, the marketing team has attempted to convince contemporary America that a boxing, swordfighting, and drinking Sherlock Holmes is the man behind the legend. Tack on Guy Ritchie, British director of such modern crime and gangster fare as Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and you have, what could be, a recipe for disaster. Don’t be too quick to discount the considerable talents of Robert Downey Jr. as the titular slueth and the always charismatic Jude Law as his trusty companion though, as both have plenty of star power to raise a mediocre project into the stratosphere. So which is it? The Sherlock Holmes movie you’ve been waiting for, or a pale imitation of the once great mastermind? Find out below:

Sherlock Holmes Review

By Ryan Hamelin

Movie Grade: A-

I know what you’re thinking. What’s with all the fisticuffs involving the world’s most famous detective in Guy Ritchie’s new Sherlock Holmes movie? Is this even a Sherlock Holmes movie, thinking, I guess, that such a film has to be boring and brain teasing as opposed to brawny and energetic? Since when does Watson not look like an overweight simpleton, pawing at Holmes’s coat and waiting for the sleuth to expertly deduce the next stage in the case? The answer to all these questions involves a creative team that knows what it takes to make a wonderfully fun an inventive piece of cinema, and a lot of that happens to do with sprucing up and, dare I say it, improving on the shadows of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes which have appeared in adaptation after adaptation over the years. Make no mistake, this is a Sherlock Holmes movie, and the modern sensibility may just be the thing that pushes this one into the status of the “Best Sherlock Holmes Movie” Hollywood has ever produced. What works you ask? Let me count the ways.

Firstly, casting. Robert Downey Jr. is a phenomenal character actor, the only type of performer who could nail the spirit of Doyle’s original flawed mastermind while still proving himself charming enough to carry a film as a leading man. Jude Law is having a blast as Watson, and apart from a lack of physical continuity to the classic image of Holmes’s sidekick you’re used to, brings a level of depth and empathy to the dynamic duo that keeps Robert Downey Jr.’s off-the-wall performance grounded. Rachel McAdams does great work as the master thief Irene Adler, and despite being far younger in relation to Holmes than would appear to work, shares a great chemistry with Downey that also manages to balance the scales of their scenes together. Watching Downey play off of the two of them is half the fun of the film, and luckily they avoid spending too long separated, allowing the lighting fast dialogue to ramp up from sequence to sequence. Mark Strong is also great in his villainous role of Lord Blackwood, but I’ll get back to him in a moment.

Secondly, script. Cracking the nut which is a Sherlock Holmes adaptation is no mean feat, and it starts with one of the ballsier moves I’ve seen a writing team make with a big franchise to date, it’s not an origin story. That’s right, this isn’t a How-Watson-Met-Sherlock-And-Went-On-Their-First-Adventure lark, and the opening throws you right into the thick of it, the way a good story should. In other news, the dialogue is delivered at a mile a minute. This is disorienting at first, and you may miss the first few minutes out of sheer shock, but the fact that these two characters know each other so well means the lines fly fast and furiously. The accents are serviceable as well, nothing to write home about, but nothing that’ll take you out of the film either. The clichéd scenes know they’re cliché and have fun with the concept, using the classical narrative structure as a jumping off point for plenty of unexpected high jinx.

The kicker, and the most impressive part of the entire script, is the handling of the exposition. Moments when a character explains the plot can be the death knell of a film, and when you’re making a Sherlock Holmes movie, you have to be prepared to handle such sequences with gusto. Luckily they do, and the dialogue is particularly impressive in these moments of intense exposition, as they end up being just as enjoyable as the action-oriented stuff which preceded it. While not an origin story, the narrative does leave a lot of room free for future chapters, namely in the form of a certain arch-nemesis, the chalk-on-the-collar, (he’s a professor, you see) darkness enshrouded Moriarty. A big cameo reveal of him in this film would have certainly kicked the ending up a notch, but as far as I know he remains uncast, despite rumors of Brad Pitt’s involvement to the contrary. The problem is that you spend much of the movie hoping that he’ll factor in somehow, and the tease almost undermines the villainy of Mark Strong, who would have made a great Moriarty, but has to be content with an amalgamation of several other Holmes adversaries.

The flair for the theatrical within Lord Blackwood feels awfully inspired by the director himself, Mr. Guy Ritchie, who hadn’t made a decent movie in a long while before returning to form with 08’s Rock’N’Rolla. Should this franchise take off, which I have no doubt it will, the big question will be who they manage to get for the bad guy role, and whether he’ll be able to hold his own against Downey with a whole movie of set-up between them. For an opening salvo, this is quite the auspicious start, and between Holmes and Avatar, you’ll be loving fun Hollywood spectacle all over again by the time Christmas is over. Pure entertainment ladies and gentlemen, it’s not nearly as elementary as one might think.

Avatar Review

By Ryan Hamelin

Movie Grade: A+

Robert Zemeckis, eat your heart out. I have never been the kind of person who is prone to the use of hyperbole. Sure, something will be “awesome” or “fantastic” or “terrific” but I never think anything is so great as to be crowned “best ever”, “most innovative”, or “phenomenal.” Today I was proven wrong. Today I saw the future of cinema, and its name is Avatar. The kind of movie that defines not only the time period of its release, but an entire generation of moviegoers. An experience the likes of which I have never had before, with any movie, and I can only theoretically compare to what it must have been like to see the original Star Wars back in 1977. To walk out of a theater and know, as strongly as I do now, that there is an almost limitless possibility resting just beyond our grasp, is not something I can find words for. James Cameron has seized the curtain and thrown it wide, letting the light pour in upon the unsuspecting masses. My only regret is that it will be another 2-3 years before anyone else has the confidence to attempt to follow in his footsteps.

For the first time, the concept of a 3D movie has a worthwhile reason to exist. The world that Cameron has created here is unparalleled by anything celluloid has presented before, from the dark recesses of the jungle to the blinding cloud cover in the mystical floating mountain ranges. It’s all beautiful, and completely realistic, despite your brain attempting to process that everything you are seeing was manufactured as a series of zeros and ones. The first few minutes are a bit of an adjustment period, and Cameron knows this, concentrating on grounded and emotional beats that bring the dimensionality of the 3D to an appropriately relevant level. As everything settles down, you feel yourself letting go of your own reality, sliding seamlessly into the universe in front of you.

And what an amazing place Pandora is. From the countless animals to the gorgeous plant life as far as the eye can see, this is a planet which could only exist in the mind of a true visionary. We are all guests to Cameron’s imagination, and I look forward to snatching as many tickets back as I can get my hands on. It’s a living and breathing world, and you cannot see where the lines meet. The virtual and the real have become forever blurred through a combination of incredibly detailed art design and a dedication to performance which puts all other “motion-capture” exercises to shame. I hate to hold this film up to something like A Christmas Carol because they’re not even playing the same sport at this point. If Spielberg intends to utilize these techniques for his Tintin film, that particular project will have jumped to the top of my Most Anticipated list.

The actors are all wonderful. Sam Worthington has officially earned his place as Hollywood’s newest powerhouse lead, and Zoe Saldana is a treat to watch, even if we never see her in the flesh. Sigourney Weaver and Giovanni Ribisi have an incredible chemistry in their few scenes together, and there is no doubt in my mind that the film could never have worked to begin with were it not for the acting talent on hand. When so much detail is captured by a computer, it makes the animation team’s jobs undeniably easier, and you can tell from the results that every frame has been lovingly composed to recreate the original actor’s performance. The story works in much the same way, retaining a wholly classic framework with all the necessary narrative beats while rearranging and reorganizing the sequencing of those scenes so as to appear spontaneous and surprising at almost every turn. You won’t know what will happen next, but as soon as it does happen, it will feel perfectly right on every level and you’ll wonder how else anyone would have thought of writing it. The script is that good. After almost a decade in development, we’d rather hope it would be.

Avatar is the real deal, the kind of epic advancement in filmmaking that only happens when an amazing creative team is paired with an equally talented and driven group of researchers and technicians who work around the clock to bring the dream to life. As Cameron is fond of saying “we pushed the envelope, and the envelope pushed back.” The film is a testament to that final success, a wonder of storytelling and special effects wizardry that will leave you feeling transported, elated, and in love with movies all over again. It’s been a long time coming, but the next great movie masterpiece has finally arrived.

Up In The Air Review

By Ryan Hamelin

Movie Grade: A+

There are times in our lives when certain aspects of how we feel, who we are, and what we believe in, hinge implicitly on our emotional state. Days seem brighter when we feel alive and happy, and it always seems to rain when we’re particularly sad. In these moments, we are hyper sensitive to everything going on around us. A well-timed joke, a playful activity, an ingenious piece of storytelling can affect us in ways far and beyond what we’d expect from the medium in question. I’d like to think that the power that Up In The Air has stems from its impeccable filmmaking quality. But with a film this good, there is always a secondary reaction, a motivational lightning rod if you will, that will be defined within the mind of every person who makes the choice to view the film. When everything works together this well, from the screenplay, to the art direction, to the acting and the lighting, a certain intangible quality arises from the interaction, a product which rises far and beyond the scope of its individual parts. When a movie “feels” this right, for its entire runtime, you know you’re witnessing something truly special, and though I will try to describe what individual pieces make up the masterpiece that is Up In The Air in the following paragraphs, simply understand that there are reasons far and beyond the work itself which make me consider this my favorite film of the year.

You have to start at the beginning. The screenplay, an adaptation of Walter Kim’s novel (he also wrote the book Thumbsuckers), scripted by Writer/Director Jason Reitman (Juno, Thank You For Smoking) and Sheldon Turner, is an impassioned argument about the nature of being a man in the modern world. Gone are the necessities of food and shelter, we’ve moved past our hunter/gatherer roots and settled into a societal structure which grinds humanity into an early grave by making us toil away at unsatisfying professions we take simply to pay the mortgage. If our lives were a backpack, you’d be surprised how little you actually care enough about to take with you, and with a character like Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) who is unencumbered by virtually any sense of home or a “grounded” life, we have a case study in how our species has evolved to handle contemporary values.

This brings us to a cast led by a should’ve-won-an-Oscar-for-acting-long-ago actor in his bravest and most wonderful performance yet. In my mind, Clooney is a virtual lock for a best actor trophy this year. However, I’ve been wrong before (last year I thought Mickey Rourke would go all the way), and I may very well be wrong by the time the votes are tallied, though that does nothing to diminish his accomplishments here. In a way it seems that the script emerged in and around all of his strengths as an actor and as a person, allowing him to wear the role like a glove and yet constantly push the boundaries of where the material would allow him to go. Vera Farmiga makes a terrific counterpoint to Clooney’s highflying everyman, as a career woman who sees travel as more of an occupational hazard that she has become accustomed to than something she sees as an opportunity. Their chemistry is extraordinary and almost instantaneous, letting the editor keep the scenes tight and smooth without losing any sense of who these characters are. Anna Kendrick is also a huge surprise here as her prior resume (cough, Twilight, cough) doesn’t exactly denote solid acting ability. Her plucky upstart character is perfectly balanced between annoying and endearing and we relate just as strongly with her struggle as we do with all the other major players. There are plenty more wonderful supporting moments, too many to list and too surprising to spoil here, that you’ll just have to see the film to enjoy, but trust me, they are all worth their screen time.

The direction of the project as a whole is a naturalistic and balanced affair, shot with an eye for character and movement that juxtaposes the cross-country nature of the narrative. The editing maintains the kind of pace you want from a film like this, not too fast to feel stuffed, but never too slow to lose your interest. The music also works incredibly well with the tone of the scenes and helps sell the lighthearted mood, an infectious combination that will leave you smiling for hours afterward. Do yourself a favor, get on the plane, and I know that you’ll enjoy the flight. These kinds of films don’t come around very often, and when they do, we need to make the most of what they have to offer.

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.