Review of The Warrior's Way (2010) by Darryl K — 03 Jul 2011

Mixing genres is really big right now, mostly because its all been done before. Sometimes it proves to be quite successful. And mixing two highly fantasized genres like ninja flicks and westerns sounds like a fun choice.

The Warriors Way attempts to do just that, and for the most part is entertaining. Yet at the same time it is a reminder of one problem with mixing the cliches of genres -- we've seen cliches before (hence the word cliche and even the word genre).

Everything in this film, you've seen before -- the ninjas, the poses, the drunken cliches, even the action (one sequence is directly ripped off from 300). Film makers seem to forget sometimes that something will be cool when it breaks the mold.

That still applies when working with cliches. However, despite a lackluster opening, bad CG, the entire film shot in front of blue screen (making the reality seem fake), and some of the cliches being so overly stylized they are laughable (a few times quite literally); TWW was actually entertaining.

All these things started the film off as merely nothing more than a vehicle to make Jang Dong-gun an international star, yet Rush's and Huston's performances were very watchable (and drew at least me into the story).

I wished only Rush would have more screen time as he and his character were much more interesting than the lead. This is a movie geared for teens, comic-geeks, and video game fans. If you are one of those, you might be entertained by this, if not, I would suggest passing.