Movie Review : Ninja Assassin

If just judging from the title, layman would think this kind of B-Movie. And for some reason, the title immediately remind me of the old American Ninja starring by B-Movie champion, Michael Dudikoff. I guess you can never take seriously a film that proudly display the word "ninja" in the title. Plus, I'm not too sure of Rain's martial. Wachowski Brothers is interesting with the Rain's ability after doing martial in Speed Racer. Unfortunately when I watched the movie, I actually appraise Rain as the worst score of the film as a whole. So I went into the movie theater and did not put any targets.

In this world there are many ninja clans who live in the shadows. We never know they existed, thought they are just a myth, but believe me if it is not true. Ninja are there, and they are assassins who are cruel and not be in humanity. Provided there is paid, they will kill anyone. One of the ninja clans in the world is Ozunu clan. They took a lot of orphans and educate these children into martial arts. Raizo - an orphan - was also the same fate. He trained as hard by the head of the clan as the leader believes that the Raizo's ability is above average.

Meanwhile, a Europol agent named Mika Coretti believes that the name of ninja is really there and an assassin clan is funded by the political leaders to kill their opponents. Of course these Mika allegations is ridiculed - except by the leader, Ryan Maslow. Instead the ninja clan who knows if they are being tracked by Mika must do something and send the ninja to kill Mika. Will Mika meet Raizo? Is this silly film? Could Rain be a real ninja?

This movie plot is shallow and predictable. As I mentioned in my initial review, enter the word of ninja as the movie title is a warranty if the story like nuts. Whereas Wachowski Brothers does not agree with the initial scenario and ask for help J. Michael Straczynski to write a story. For who do not know, Straczynski is one of my favorite comics writers and famous for writing that can optimize the humanist side of a superhero (story arc Back in Black and One More Day in Spider-Man and Silver Surfer: Requiem is living proof of his genius). But the screenplay is written within 53 hours by Straczynski, so maybe because it was too improvised quality. Early half of the film is very boring, especially because it contains a series of flashbacks of Raizo scenes and Raizo's future that practice in his room. The story feels Raizo flashbacks of long-winded and too cliched.

Fortunately just pacing the film starts to increase into the second half. One thing that became a pleasant surprise for me was the appearance of Rain in the film. In the beginning of the movie I was still pessimistic. I was afraid that his acting would simply like June Ji-Hyun in Blood: The Last Vampire, alias silent and cocky cool, plus the perfunctory action scenes. Apparently I missed estimates, in the early half of the story shows the results of direct Rain intensive training. Great body and muscular six-pack; the point he could immediately become a member of the army list of King Leonidas in 300! More than that I was amazed to see how Rain demonstrate his martial skills. Proved in the second half of the film when the contests between the ninja began to occur, director of James McTeigue is not afraid to take pictures corner for far distance and experiment with various styles of cinematography to show the ability of Rain in action - compared with how the camera in the film Blood continued to highlight Ji-June Hyun is a close-up to cheat the audience see the Korean artist in action. Rain's acting ability is also improved a lot compared to the debut of Speed Racer. Proved to me several times laughing with humorous one-liners that he was saying.

Overall, Ninja Assassin is an action movie to be enjoyed without much thought. Sho Kosugi appearance as Ozunu clan leader and the main enemy is going to recognize B-Movie fans because these actors often appear in Ninja-themed films. It's just a little warning, especially for who associate that ninja just for little kids because read Naruto: this movie is bloody ... and when I say it's bloody, I mean it's bloodier than Saw. Ahem, anyone remembers Ong-Bak when this movie?

Movie Details
Director: James McTeigue
Cast: Rain, Naomie Harris, Sho Kosugi
Running Time: 95 Minutes