Review of Ninja Assassin (2009) by Diogomendes — 31 Oct 2015

As I looked in the Bluray cover my friend borrowed me, I already knew what I was going for in this film: A brutally violent, yet overly serious and too choppy motion picture to be entertaining. That is the case with this movie, but what's worst is the addition of paper-thin characters, half-baked plotting, and poorly directed, edited gory scenes, with zero knowledge of what is going on in the particular scenes. There was no sense of fun in those sequences. Sure, there were ninjas with knives, swords, bladed chains, but does that really equal to good action? Absolutely no. The way director James McTeigue structured the action beats was beyond rushed and horrendous, with quick cuts, unnecessary close-ups and unrealistic jumps, along with awful editing, which is in display just by looking at the obviously shoddy CGI blood effect. Of course this guy learned nothing about "Matrix".

The first half of the movie really focus too much on flashbacks, rather on the main storyline. Not that the latter was less than bland, but there you have it. Too often I forgot I was watching "Ninja Assassin" with too many flashes to Raizo's past. Those scenes didn't do anything but to flesh out the character a little bit, and to offer more incomprehensible fights. The bad guy truly stood out as one of the most clichéd antagonists. Apart from the obvious perspective that he's a bad guy, there was no backstory nor humanity for this character to feel sympathetic. As for the other characters, what can I say about them, honestly? They got the simple plot moving, although I did like some performances. SOME. While the goons who were killed in the beginning of the movie were too over-the-top, star Rain portrayed his character finely, showing his emotions both as a ruthless killer and as good person underneath consistently. Naomie Harris portrayed her character just fine, but unfortunately she wasn't given much material to work with, being more kind of a love interest for our "hero". The movie didn't really need that romantic tension, but given how empty the script was, it probably was for the better.

If you are looking for a smartly plotted film, you won't find one in this mess. The narrative shows Raizo being trained by a highly secret society known as "Ozunu Clan", transforming himself into a cold-blooded warrior. His association with the group ends as they kill his best friend, escaping and hiding from them. He allies with agent Mika and Maslow (honestly I had to search this name because the guy was so forgettable) to stop this organization and kill his master. There's no emotional hook or depth whatsoever. It's just merely a preposterous, spaghetti-like clusterf*ck of a story that wants to generate action scenes, but not even that they can get it right. They don't even explain what's the purpose of having a ninja society that kills people who betray them.

This movie fails to live up to its title? Maybe to what's supposed to be (a great action flick), but this film assassinates too many elements that could have worked in favor for it. The only thing I recommend you is that if your favorite TV channel decides to air this movie one evening, or if someone brings the cover of this film, you be as fast as a ninja to avoid it.