Review of The One (2001) by Kai82 — 20 Sep 2021

I like the ideas and it is a solid and entertaining movie. My main critique is that they do not enough with the ideas. Basically there is not much development and resolve if you look at it after the conclusion.

Luckily it has still good scenes, martial arts and actors that deliver a good performance. It uses the theory of parallel universes. This is the idea that our universe is just one of many that create a multiverse.

For each possibility you can imagine there might be an entire universe. In “The One” travel between universes is possible as in some universes Earth scientists have discovered the technology to do it.

However not every Earth has it and in many the governments do not know about it. In one universe the “Multiverse Authority” exist which polices interdimensional travel. The problems for them started before the events of the movie when one of their agents Gabriel Yulaw killed another universes version of himself in self defense.

This made him and all other alternate versions stronger. So he chose to kill all other versions of himself in the 124 universes to become what he calls “The One”. He was pretty successful and the only remaining alternate is Gabe Law.

This is the excellent set up of the story. The ideas is interesting and well done. Like I already said the conclusion could be better but to be fair I cant criticize the final scenes as those are awesome too.

It just lacks a bit of resolve. The fights are well choreographed and those are truly enjoyable. These go hand in hand with the special effects and stunts as they use the set up of the story to do more.

Character wise we have Jet Li as Gabriel Yulaw and Gabe Law. He delivers a good performance in both roles and I was surprised that he can be such a good bad guy. As a side note: Dwayne Johnson should actually play the main role.

Maybe this will be used in one of his movies. Then we have Jason Statham as Agent Funsch. He also delivers a good performance. Sadly I would rather prefer a full team up or being antagonist wit Jet Lee.

I specially praise Carla Gugino as T. K. Law for her performance. Other than those Delroy Lindo’s performance is also good. I see no missteps here and say all did a good job. I want to praise the soundtrack too.

It has tracks from Papa Roach, Disturbed and Drowning Pool which is awesome and hits my taste in music. I value this as additional strength. Overall this is an awesome movie but also a disappointment.

I will no go into a rant as I was well entertained. It is one of the rare movies that I would describe as entertaining disappointments if that makes sense for you.