Ninja Assassin (2009)

I took a little time to think on how to rate "Ninja Assassin" (although probably that's the least meaningful part of an entry). Eventually I decided to restrain myself and opted for what's written in the end. Just to be sure nobody will think that I'm drunk in case I would have given a higher rating. Although it still might happen if I'm thinking on the last week's movie. But comparing here, just because we're talking about two movies, is like placing Mona Lisa and the Eiffel Tower on the same balance because both are in Paris. On the other hand, this is the second time in the last period when I have a completely different opinion from IMDb and the critics. Let's see why ...

"Ninja Assassin" is an action movie before anything else. Some say it has to little action, some that it has too much. For me it was the perfect amount. Especially considering that it's backed up by a story, even if it's a simple one, maybe melancholic, with plot holes, again for some too long or completely invisible for others. It was quite ok as a story for an action movie. And we have also something that brings some weight for anything from the genre if handled appropriately (but again the critics were probably blind to see it) - an one-to-one conflict = the ultimate good guy (at least from some point onwards) vs. the ultimate bad guy. I'll be back to this, let me take them one by one ...

I. The story: I started with this part to give a sense for what's next, the movie having the same approach (and it works wonderfully). In the first scene we have a ninja "cleaning up" a room from an entire yakuza gang in an a la Tarantino style. After which we have the context - which is presented through a series of flashbacks with sequences from the life of a ninja trained since a little kid by an assassins clan. These flshbacks (which present a bit more complex story than Van Damme's training in "BloodSport" but I won't get into details) are rolled in parallel with the action from the present placed in Berlin. Here a female Europol agent with a bit too much free time finds some occupation by investigating a series of killings throughout the history. From the vague existing documentation she gets the conclusion that the executor group was the same, and paid with the same amount ... since the middle ages. Of course the whole theory with ninja clans seems like a movie story for her superior but he lets her go on with the investigation. And slowly, as she advances, the things start to get complicated, especially from when this path of action mixes with the other one = the flashbacks told story of the ninja which reaches the present. The only thing I'm saying more is that in the last flashback you're presented with the violent split between the ninja who and the clan, which puts him in the position of the "ultimate good guy" and the clan chief as the "ultimate bad guy" about I was saying before. From a couple opinions which I had the time to read in the half of hour I've granted myself for seeing what's the problem with the IMDb rating, it results that is too much story and too thin just to support a bunch of mindless action scenes. I don't want to start here enumerating action movies which have a thinner story than "Ninja Assassin" because I'm not gonna end today. There are indeed some holes in the script but as complexity, what's above is far from being all you get as a story. And it is coherent enough despite everything is said, and it also takes more than five lines of text to put it on paper. Which is good, because from an action movie, if something sticks to your head for longer than one year it will probably be the story, and ...

II. The Conflict: "Die Hard" basically doesn't have not even a quarter from the story here and it still is a masterpiece for an action movie. But it is a particular case. Why ? First, it has a pretty restrained context in which the action develops this allowing the viewer to be more drawn by what he sees on the screen. Second, you have a conflict between a main character on the good side and a main character on the bad side, which conflict is backed up wonderfully by the restrained context which intensifies it. Well, in "Ninja Assassin" we don't have a narrow context, but we have the conflict. And as from "Die Hard" you'll remember Gruber (or in any case if not the name, the evil guy who "hijacked" Nakatomi Tower), from "Kill Bill" you'll remember Bill, from "Speed" you'll remember .. Dennis Hopper ( I'm not recalling the name, with Bill was easier :) ), the same way here you'll probably remember the assassin clan chief. It's not anyway sufficient to just have two main characters, the story has to "build" them in order to "hit" the viewer with the conflict between them, and especially the negative one because the most impact comes from that side (remember "Darth Vader" ? :) ). Well, probably "Ninja Assassin" is not exactly as "Star Wars" for this part, but it really does a good job on "building" the bad character. And this is basically due to the story .. considered useless by some.

III. The Action: The guy who plays the main character (the good guy), Rain, from what I learned is a professional dancer having lots of shows and a ton of success in Asia. Probably that explains the choreography of the fight scenes, about which I don't know how realistic are considering the martial arts technique but they definitely look good. Most of the time it looks indeed like a dance. And to top it the weapon which get the most screen time (I don't know the exact name, something close to Mortal Kombat's Scorpion chained kunai) is not really often seen in movies and adds more to the "artistic impression". Probably that's also the reason why despite the violence and the blood excess (the movie is clearly rated 18+) I believe it's one of the few cases where I can say it's tolerable and not disgusting (although the amounts of spilled red paint could've been definitely lower).

I have written enough about the good parts. There are also bad ones. Yes, as I wrote above the script has clearly parts that could have been better. Same for the actors. With the exception of the three main ones (and even here not all the time), the rest seem to be just picked from the street and brought to the set. Besides that, the worst part is that it sounds awfully unnatural hearing all the japanese talking in English. There is anyway something good, coming from all of these, at least for me :) Remember the bunch of lines in "Commando" between Schwarzenegger and his "kidnapped" action partner which at some point went so far that were not anymore horrible but funny ? Well, it's not the same level at all here, but there are a few moments though when you might have the feeling that "Ninja Assassin" brings a tribute to the screenwriters from "Commando". Which again, for me is funny :), not bad at all. As a final idea I can say that James McTeigue ("V for Vendetta") from my point of view managed to achieve something with this movie that seems to combine the best from "Crying Freeman" with Mark Dacascos and from "The Hunted" with Cristopher Lambert, another two flicks probably to old and unknown but as underrated as this one.

Rating: 4 out of 5