Ninja Assassin

Title: Ninja Assassin
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Action
Starring: Rain (I’m a Cyborg)
Director: James McTeigue

I know what you’re thinking, what a supremely original title. How could this be anything but an epic masterpiece worthy of any lofty title bestowed upon it; in case the sarcasm has yet to hit, if you’re looking for a decent plot you’re really looking in the wrong place. As sceptical as such a title would make any film fan, rather than allude to some frightfully dull overused concept, has a far more ‘Snakes on a Plane’ sense to it; what they both lack in subtlety they make up for by delivering precisely what they claim to, which in this case means ninja warrior carnage with plenty of CGI bloodshed, martial arts to keep the “Tony Jaa” fanboys at bay, and that classic Rambo tradition of shooting everything with really big guns. Original? No. But it sure is damn fun.

The story consists of three plot lines; the journey of the adult ninja Raizo, trained to ruthlessly assassinate any target who he is paid to (and at something like $1.8million a hit, business is surprisingly good), his demoralising upbringing that turned him into the creature of the night seen in modern times, and a moronic cop whose exploration as to these ninja clans threads together Raizo’s past and present. It is perhaps most disappointing that the thread involving the police is perhaps the most difficult to believe; inhuman powers I can fathom from an action film, but the idiotic actions of these characters are simply beyond comprehension. When the plot is done ‘developing,’ and the lead comes back on the screen is when things kick off again, feeling almost as though the story had been left on pause accidentally.

The character of Raizo is not as simple as it would first seem though; no simple gung-ho or revenge scenario, instead his actions, which as it turns out quickly aligns with the police in his intention to bring down the despicable practices of his own clan, have a deeply rooted cause evident from his childhood and the forbidden love he once held. Most action films barely bother to give our protagonist a motive, let alone a well detailed and integral one that isn’t tacked on as some afterthought, affecting every action he makes throughout the film. The acting abilities of the lead felt up to the challenge as in the last film of his I saw, and whilst hardly a difficult role (beyond the physical choreography, which McTeigue had training from the Wachowski Brothers here), it was performed to a point that his Korean-pop-star origins would not have otherwise been noticed.

I could penalise it for the small minor quibbles – the inexplicable spontaneous re-healing abilities and the ridiculous ending transforming it into some sort of bad ‘Mortal Kombat’ remake (and the original wasn’t brilliant) – but this does for the most part precisely what it sets out to do, and strives for more than just a standard action affair. The dramatic tension created from his childhood was worked seamlessly into his current crusade, adding a sense of gravity to the action scenes beyond the ‘300’ like stylised bloodshed, and the imagery and symbolism underneath the main plot if sadly a little obvious demonstrates the thought that has gone into all aspects of the production. For a film with such an unsuspecting name (not to mention starring a Korean pop idol) this isn’t half bad.