Just got back from a screening of NINJA ASSASSIN, the new James McTeigue film. Produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowskis. Sold yet? If you weren't sold by the title alone, then you have issues. Ninjas. You hear me? I've had reviews posted before, one very recently, so I figured why not send another your way. That, plus I'm scared ninjas will come after me and slice me in half if I don't.
Let me tell you this, the horror genre should be ashamed of itself. There was so much blood in this movie, it made me question if my body actually has all the blood I saw spilling out of the bodies on screen. Recent horror movies have been sub par. Ninja Assassin paints a way to fix that. Just add more blood. The movie should have been called Blood and Violence. Better yet, Blood and More Blood. Ninja Assassin ****ING RULES.
I don't scare easily, but I'm kind of freaking out right now. If you're familiar with Robert Hamburger's epic novel REAL Ultimate Power: A Guide to Ninjas, then you will love this movie. If you are not familiar, you will still love this movie. I haven't seen so much violence on screen since Planet Terror or Scarface. Planet Terror was way over the top, and while I don't care for it too much, I have to give Rodriguez props for the amount of blood he spilled. Imagine Oren-Ishii beheading the guy that mouthed off to her at the table, holding his head as blood just gushed the **** out of his neck in Kill Bill. Now imagine that, but more realistic happening to every ****ing person that dies. I wasn't able to keep up on the body count, but I'm confident in saying that there were well over a 100 deaths.
I'll review the movie, SPOILERS BELOW! <>
The movie opens with a tattoo artist giving some gang punk some ink on his back. The punk is whiny about it, crying like a ***** that it hurts to much. The old, wise artist goes on to explain that tattoos show how a man lived his life, the journey he took, etc. The punk asks if he has any tattoos, which the old man does. One right over his heart, a ninja slicing a sword where a giant scar is. The man goes on to say that he had seen "one" once. He won't even utter the word. Ninja. The punk and his friends laugh at the old man, mocking him with the word - ninja, ninja, ninja! An envelope arrives, in it is just black sand. Proceed to the bloodiest opening of movie I have ever seen. Ninjas are the ****ing ****. Left and right, bodies are sliced in half. Limbs are cut off. Ninja stars are flying everywhere. If there is darkness, there are ninjas in it. They move in and out of the darkness like ghosts. I have never **** myself in a theatre before, but I almost did out of glee because I knew what I was in for.
Cue the plot of the movie which has to happen to move the story along. Two Interpol agents are working on a case of someone that has mysteriously died. They are brilliantly played by Naomie Harris as Mika, the black chick, and Ben Miles as *****ebag, P.I. (his name was Ryan according to IMDB, but I never heard it). I was being sarcastic when I said brilliant. Epic *****e chills whenever they were on screen. Mika wasn't as bad as her co-star. Here's the deal. Mika, is working this case when she comes across some **** that leads her to believe someone was killed by ninjas, and there is 100,000 in Euros floating around or some ********. The plot sucked, but Joe Public needs their ****ing story laid out in front of them or they don't get it. Apparently, they think there is some ninja clan taking little kids and training them to be full blown assassins. Well gee, they couldn't be more ****ing right.
Rain, an actor whom I have never seen pwns this movie. He plays Raizo, orphan turned death machine. In the first 45 min of the film we cut back and forth with Raizo training to be a ninja, with the glue that is Mika and her obsession to find out what happened to this 100,000 in Euros. I'm dropping the subplot of the Euros now, because they did it in the movie too, but just dragged it out. Hold on for some awesomeness.
We see Raizo, held against his will as he is trained by his "father" - the leader of the Nine Clans. Raizo is one of many young children being trained. He learns the ways on the ninja, while so, falling for a girl who is the same age and training with him. Don't remember her name, sorry. She doesn't live too long anyways, so screw it. Raizo develops a bit of a problem with another student who he is training with. Long story short, his problem buddy end up killing his love interest when she is caught trying to escape the training ground.
Mature Raizo, in his twenties is mysteriously given ( AND NEVER ****ING EXPLAINED ) picture of Mika. Holy ****, he's gonna kill this *****! No. FAIL. Mika goes home to find that the lights have been cut off for three blocks in her neighborhood. *****, if there are people, waiting outside your apartment complex, and you have been busy at work all day tracking mother****ing ninjas, are you going to go in your dark apartment? Of course she does. Christ. Dumb broads. So, **** for brains Mika goes on up to her pitch black apartment for god knows what reason ( NEVER ****ING EXPLAINED ) and is of course attacked by a ninja! Holy ****! Raizo was sent to kill her! No. Raizo was sent to SAVE HER - (insert epic YUCK here). Raizo slices some mother****ing ninja ass apart... in her apartment, and escapes with her. So now we have Mika (the plot) and Raizo (epic awesomeness) together.
Raizo and Mika go, they exchange stories as what they are each looking for. Mika wants to know where these Euros are, Raizo, tells her she is basically dead unless she does what he says. There are some comedic moments which the audience laughed at, including myself, involving Mika's pants size. Raizo and Mika hit it off, so it's obvious that there is a romance blooming. Mika learns that Raizo left the clan/cult he was in and is looking for revenge. Awesome right? Mika tells Raizo she can help him by calling *****ebag, P.I. Raizo agrees, and is obviously trapped by the *****e and the Interpol/Special Forces. The amount of people it takes to trick one Ninja is unbelievable. They capture Raizo like a dog, literally.
So now, we're holed up in some hidden building the *****e, P.I. is running. Mika is pissed she was double crossed by *****ey P.I., and Raizo is chained the **** down to a wall. **** the story, here come ninjas. Thirsty for Raizo's blood. They've been searching for him for years, and now they know where he is. Another epic death scene. Agents bodies being sliced in half, limbs everywhere. Mika helps Raizo escape, but only after turning into every character that has ever had to turn a key in a horror movie. Holy ****ing ****, we get it. People get nervous, and they drop their keys. I wouldn't think that an AGENT would be scared ****less and dropping her keys when trying to pull handcuffs off someone. I swear to god, if I could punch film and hurt it, I ****ing would. Raizo and Mika escape, EPIC awesome escape sequence. Ninjas fighting on the highway, one of the best HOLY **** moments I've seen recently, and bam, onto the third act.
Raizo gets captured by his old clan. Mika plants a special tracking device in him. Here comes the epic ****ing battle. ONE, with a SWAT team storming the ninja clan's hideout, 2. an awesome fight between master vs sensei. I have never seen a ninja face Hummers, machine guns or rocket launchers. Until tonight. I witnessed the most over the top violent ending to a movie ever. Mika is killed, thank god, Raizo kills his master, after an EPIC battle.
END SPOILERS.
The movie ****ing ruled.
I learned two things. One, ninjas live in the darkness. Two, ninjas will kill the **** out of me. I couldn't have been happier leaving the theatre. Watching ninjas move in the shadows was amazing. Overall, I give the movie a B+. Rain stole the show. The blood and violence stole the show. I'm scared for my ****ing life because of ninjas. I'm going to suck on a bar of xanax and finish they glass of whiskey I poured. I could not be happier that I drove out to watch this movie. Yes, it had it's issues, but when it comes down to it, I was happy that I was just spoon fed an abundance of violence and blood. I'll be there again opening weekend... with a flashlight.
