Blood Blood Everywhere

Last Friday I headed out of the house hoping to see Up in the Air but when I got to my usual theatre and the movie was no where to be found on the marquee. I know that would have been the third George Clooney movie I have seen out of the last 4 but it looks good. Plus with Jason Reitman as the director you can’t really go to wrong. I was so disappointed but then relieved at the same time. I don’t wanna Clooney myself out after all. So this gave me a break from him and gave me a chance to see something else. Something not thought provoking or complex or requires you to use any higher brain function. I saw Ninja Assassin.

Raizo, Rain, was trained to be a lethal killer since childhood by the Ozunu clan. After finding out what he was trained for he turns his back on them and seeks revenge on the people who made him the way he is. He teams up with Mika, Naomie Harris, a Europol investigator, to fulfill his plan.

What can I say about this Ninja Assassin? There is a lot of blood. I knew exactly what I was walking into, a ninja movie with swords and fights and such, but still every scene I kept saying to myself that is a lot of blood. It was gushing everywhere. Now the problem with that wasn’t really the amount of blood but the fact that most of it was bad CG blood. It was so distracting to look at, it just was so obvious that it was added later for extra effect.

But a good thing about the movie was that you got over the bad CG blood quickly because the action was great. There was a lot of “Oh my god that looks so fake. LOOK AT THAT GUYS ARM!” The fight sequences are long bloody and awesome. There are a number of weapons used including swords, throwing stars, Kusari-gama (I think that is what it is called), and the shadows.

Now when the action stopped the, I loosely use the word, acting begins. You could tell no one there was trying that hard cuz they knew they were just filler. No one goes to see a movie like Ninja Assassin for the plot and acting. Now I wouldn’t complain if they did manage to make a well rounded film but with this they didn’t. The dialogue was stupid, the plot had lots of holes, and the acting was just bad. You could tell the writers did try to develop a thoughtful plot by giving the main character a background and “depth” but they didn’t succeed. They did lame things like throw in a montage of Rain working out all sexy ninja like. One good thing is that it was no where near as bad as Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

Based on action alone Ninja Assassin is pretty good but when you have to balance out the bad acting and plot it is just ok. I don’t think it is necessary to see this on the big screen seeing it on the small screen will do it just fine.

Tra