Review of Ninja Assassin (2009) by Kenneth L — 22 Dec 2010

Is this a particularly original or artistic movie? No. Does it have ninjas? Yes, yes it does. Honestly, this is a 2-star movie that gets an extra star for having ninjas. They really should make more movies about ninjas, and make them better than this one.

The plot is flimsy, to say the least. The characters are flat as paper, and the dialogue is almost purely dedicated to exposition. The flashback scenes to the main character's childhood are interesting, and effective in establishing his school as the most intense ninja school ever.

Rain, in the lead role, is stoic and pretty wooden, although that woodenness does make some of his lines pretty funny ("I don't mean to be critical," he tells the female lead as she desperately struggles to unlock his handcuffs as hostile ninjas enter the room).

Naomie Harris, who was really great in Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story and the last two Pirates of the Caribbean movies, unfortunately does not get to do much interesting in this role. The action suffers from a lot of the problems common to second-rate American action movies these days: edited too fast, the stunts are hard to appreciate in close-up, obvious special effects, etc.

But there are still a few good moments of action, as in the pretty excellent opening sequence, or when the camera does the 300 thing of normal speed - slow-motion - normal speed again. I must say that the ninjas in this movie are indeed pretty darn good ninjas.

They materialize out of shadows and slice people in half before anyone even realizes they're there, just like ninjas should. Katanas and ninja stars aplenty. This is not a great movie, not really even a good movie, but still: ninjas.

I wish there were more movies about them.