Ninja Assassin
3/4
Starring: Rain, Naomie Harris, Ben Miles, Sho Kosugi, Rick Yune
Rated R for Strong Bloody Stylized Violence Throughout, and for Language
"Ninja Assassin" is a bonafide adrenaline cocktail that, in addition to getting the blood pumping, will send your nerves through the shredder. This may be an action movie, but it's also seriously creepy.
Mika Coretti (Harris) has stumbled into something she shouldn't. She's long since had a theory that many key assassinations over the years have been carried out by ninjas in exchange for 100 pounds of gold (or the equivalent). Her boss, Maslow (Miles) thinks she's nuts until the evidence begins to point in her favor. Now, he and Mika have to not only deal with the higher ups who want to keep them from sniffing around, but from the ninjas themselves.
Meanwhile, a ninja named Raizo (Rain) is also on Mika's trail, although for different reasons. He is a ninja of the Ozunu clan (the ones who are after Mika). But he rebelled and has been looking for revenge. For that, he needs Mika's help.
As an action movie, "Ninja Assassin" is a complete success. It's got tons of action, stuntwork and martial arts. It's also awash in blood and gore. As a thriller, "Ninja Assassin" is also a good choice. It's drenched in atmosphere, and the way that the script by Matthew Sand (with significant rewrites by J. Michael Straczynski) tells us their history and what they're capable of, is guaranteed to get the nape hairs to stand up.
The acting is flat, but that's to be expected in this sort of movie. Rain, the Korean pop star, didn't demonstrate great range in his debut, "Speed Racer," and his thespian skills haven't improved very much. Rain's performance works for two reasons, however: he doesn't have a lot of dialogue and he has screen presence. Naomie Harris, a British actress who was terrific in "The First Grader," is merely okay as Mika. She gets us on her side, but Harris has a tendency to get hammy. Ben Miles fades into the background as Mika's boss, but he's not that important. Martial arts legend Sho Kosugi makes for a good villain, but far creepier is Rick Yune. With one exception, he's covered with a ninja mask, and only his eyes are visible. Listening to him say "Run, Little Brother" or "Hello, Little Brother" with his smooth voice is positively chilling.
This is the second film of James McTeigue, protoge of the Wachowski brothers. His first, "V for Vendetta," was a political thriller that asked tough questions about how much freedom we are willing to give up for a sense of security. "Ninja Assassin" has no other goals than to get the adrenaline pumping. It succeeds tremendously, mainly because McTeigue has a sense of visual flair and a knack for staging action sequences (this was evident in "V for Vendetta" as well).
"Ninja Assassin" doesn't pretend to be something it's not. If you're looking for cool action served up with a hell of a lot of blood, gore and severed limbs, this will do the job nicely.
Starring: Rain, Naomie Harris, Ben Miles, Sho Kosugi, Rick Yune
Rated R for Strong Bloody Stylized Violence Throughout, and for Language
"Ninja Assassin" is a bonafide adrenaline cocktail that, in addition to getting the blood pumping, will send your nerves through the shredder. This may be an action movie, but it's also seriously creepy.
Mika Coretti (Harris) has stumbled into something she shouldn't. She's long since had a theory that many key assassinations over the years have been carried out by ninjas in exchange for 100 pounds of gold (or the equivalent). Her boss, Maslow (Miles) thinks she's nuts until the evidence begins to point in her favor. Now, he and Mika have to not only deal with the higher ups who want to keep them from sniffing around, but from the ninjas themselves.
Meanwhile, a ninja named Raizo (Rain) is also on Mika's trail, although for different reasons. He is a ninja of the Ozunu clan (the ones who are after Mika). But he rebelled and has been looking for revenge. For that, he needs Mika's help.
As an action movie, "Ninja Assassin" is a complete success. It's got tons of action, stuntwork and martial arts. It's also awash in blood and gore. As a thriller, "Ninja Assassin" is also a good choice. It's drenched in atmosphere, and the way that the script by Matthew Sand (with significant rewrites by J. Michael Straczynski) tells us their history and what they're capable of, is guaranteed to get the nape hairs to stand up.
The acting is flat, but that's to be expected in this sort of movie. Rain, the Korean pop star, didn't demonstrate great range in his debut, "Speed Racer," and his thespian skills haven't improved very much. Rain's performance works for two reasons, however: he doesn't have a lot of dialogue and he has screen presence. Naomie Harris, a British actress who was terrific in "The First Grader," is merely okay as Mika. She gets us on her side, but Harris has a tendency to get hammy. Ben Miles fades into the background as Mika's boss, but he's not that important. Martial arts legend Sho Kosugi makes for a good villain, but far creepier is Rick Yune. With one exception, he's covered with a ninja mask, and only his eyes are visible. Listening to him say "Run, Little Brother" or "Hello, Little Brother" with his smooth voice is positively chilling.
This is the second film of James McTeigue, protoge of the Wachowski brothers. His first, "V for Vendetta," was a political thriller that asked tough questions about how much freedom we are willing to give up for a sense of security. "Ninja Assassin" has no other goals than to get the adrenaline pumping. It succeeds tremendously, mainly because McTeigue has a sense of visual flair and a knack for staging action sequences (this was evident in "V for Vendetta" as well).
"Ninja Assassin" doesn't pretend to be something it's not. If you're looking for cool action served up with a hell of a lot of blood, gore and severed limbs, this will do the job nicely.
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