The Wachowskis' Ninja Assassin

[Nivek]

It's this whole elitist tool-ish attitude from people that I just laugh at. The movie I mentioned above were mauled by critics back in the day, it's just fans made them what they are, then critics changed their opinion with 20/20 hindsight. Hell, it was just posted in one of the other threads, look up what Ebert said about Predator. You think it has a good plot, cause Ebert didn't.

Not that any of these opinions makes my opinion worth less, I just feel my expectations were met and I was thoroughly entertained. And I love not being able to see Ninjas, thatas kind of the point.

 

[Timstuff]

My mini review...


What an awful film on every level. Obviously, in a film like this, the only redeeming value would be the action sequences, but it seems that Michael J Fox was the big cheese in the editing room and the lighting during nearly every scene is non-existent. Not to mention the CGI blood should be a cardinal sin for this type of film -- at least when it's executed this poorly -- and even when you can see what's going on, the film looks completely bland, like something you'd probably see go direct-to-dvd. How this cost over $40 million is beyond me.....what a huge disappointment.

2/10

You pretty much of summed up my negative feelings about the movie, but I wanted to like it too much to word it that harshly.

I don't hate the movie-- I liked it enough that I'll probably buy it, and it's not like there are a lot of Ninja movies that are better than it. Unfortunately though, it's basically the modern equivelent of the kind of cheesy Ninja schlock we'd see in the 80's and early 90's, but with 2009's special effects and coverup techniques for bad choreography. I can imagine that in 10 years there's probably going to be some kid who discovers he loves ninjas, will find this in a crusty old video store and think it's awesome until he grows up, sort of like American Ninja and other silly nonsense, but it's definitely puzzling as to why this movie cost 50 million bucks. My best guess would be all the obvious looking CG (hey, at least Snake Eyes was only CG for like, one shot in GI Joe, and never used CG weapons).

Also, I know I keep comparing this movie to GI Joe, but I agree that the whole "big brother rivalry" thing felt totally out of place in this movie, and felt like a sloppy imitation of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow but with nothing compelling about it. This wasn't a real rivalry-- it was just one of the ninjas calling him "little brother" (and we couldn't even tell him apart from the other Ninjas anyway, so it was pointless).

I read somewhere that this movie's script was written over the course of 2 days, and I believe it because it was pretty much cobbled together using bits and pieces from every other ninja movie and story before it, and blending them together without any sort of hook except the fake looking CG gore, which is not a plot element but in this movie it may as well have been.

 

[CelticPredator]

It's this whole elitist tool-ish attitude from people that I just laugh at. The movie I mentioned above were mauled by critics back in the day, it's just fans made them what they are, then critics changed their opinion with 20/20 hindsight. Hell, it was just posted in one of the other threads, look up what Ebert said about Predator. You think it has a good plot, cause Ebert didn't.

Not that any of these opinions makes my opinion worth less, I just feel my expectations were met and I was thoroughly entertained. And I love not being able to see Ninjas, thatas kind of the point.

I enjoyed the flick...so, I dont know what you're talking about. But it was horrible. Just like Transformers 2. I still loved TF2, but I knew it was horrid.

And Ebert can suck it. He hates SLiTHER. But Predator's plot is a fun one.

 

[rashad]

Wow, talk about being disappointed with others opinions. I loved this flick, it was incredibly entertaining to me, and found it one of the best Ninja themed films I ever seen. It doesn't have an Oscar winning plot, but it doesn't need one.

+1. Yeah it's a little disheartening to hear most were disappointed or mixed on the film. But that's ok.

 

[rashad]

Budget was only $40M
Weekend Esimates $5,030,000
Domestic: $29,790,000
Foreign: (updated later)

 

[Timstuff]

At best I can see this film breaking even in theaters. They probably could have cut the budget in half if they had skipped all the bad CG gore and gotten a competent fight choreographer instead.

 

[Wolfwood]

At best I can see this film breaking even in theaters. They probably could have cut the budget in half if they had skipped all the bad CG gore and gotten a competent fight choreographer instead.

Yeah and it might do well on DVD, I'm sure there'll be a quite a few curious people renting it.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

Yea it will probably be a cult hit on DVD.

I'm surprised at the criticism actually. The Wachowski's get a lot of stick, but to be honest, I think they should be applauded for their action scenes and live action stunts. Sure they should stay away from writing, but they know how to make a visual feast, the Matrix films and V for Vendetta proves this.

Granted I haven't seen this film yet, but I mean, complaining about a Ninja film being too dark is pretty stupid to be honest.

 

[Dark Victory]

At best I can see this film breaking even in theaters. They probably could have cut the budget in half if they had skipped all the bad CG gore and gotten a competent fight choreographer instead.

The choreography looked sound in some of the behind the scenes videos other than some of the completely unecessary flips. McTeigue just makes Michael Bay look like Terrence Malick.

 

[Dark Victory]

And I love not being able to see Ninjas, thatas kind of the point.

This worked somehwhat well in the opening scene, but just about every other scene -- ugh. It was something that worked well on paper -- a good concept -- that was executed poorly. The film's poor cinematography didn't help either. In most sequences, I couldn't even tell who the victims were; I'd just see poor CG blood splatter out of the blackness.

 

[Timstuff]

The choreography looked sound in some of the behind the scenes videos other than some of the completely unecessary flips. McTeigue just makes Michael Bay look like Terrence Malick.

I was telling a friend last night (after seeing the movie) that Ninja Assassin's cinematography made Transformers ROTF's look like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

[Golgo-13]

I was telling a friend last night (after seeing the movie) that Ninja Assassin's cinematography made Transformers ROTF's look like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

[deathshead2]

And I don't mean to sound racist but during the flashbacks, I couldn't tell which one was supposed to be rain when he was around all the other asian students. When he had scenes alone I knew, but during fights I was like, "Who should I be rooting for, they both look the same?"

And I thought it was weird how Rick Yune kind of showed up out of nowhere as his rival. Was he in the flashbacks, cus I only remember him during one scene where he said "Brother" after the fight in the girls apartment, and at the end? I was just like WTF where have you been the whole time Rick Yune, and why are you rivals, you haven't really done anything together to be rivals?

 

[Timstuff]

Even in GI Joe where the kids looked different, they still had them wearing different colored uniforms to make them look more distinct. Also, as odd as it sounds I think that GI Joe's fights involving kids were more brutal than Ninja Assassin's, even though it was PG-13. A wee bit o' blood don't mean all that much-- it's the fighting itself that counts.

 

[Nivek]

I was telling a friend last night (after seeing the movie) that Ninja Assassin's cinematography made Transformers ROTF's look like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 

[Wolfwood]

And I don't mean to sound racist but during the flashbacks, I couldn't tell which one was supposed to be rain when he was around all the other asian students. When he had scenes alone I knew, but during fights I was like, "Who should I be rooting for, they both look the same?"

Nah, I kind of had the same problem. I didn't realize the nice ninja was a girl right away either.

 

[Matt Mortem]

And I don't mean to sound racist but during the flashbacks, I couldn't tell which one was supposed to be rain when he was around all the other asian students. When he had scenes alone I knew, but during fights I was like, "Who should I be rooting for, they both look the same?"

And I thought it was weird how Rick Yune kind of showed up out of nowhere as his rival. Was he in the flashbacks, cus I only remember him during one scene where he said "Brother" after the fight in the girls apartment, and at the end? I was just like WTF where have you been the whole time Rick Yune, and why are you rivals, you haven't really done anything together to be rivals?

Thats probably my biggest problem with the film. The fight scenes and the gore I can let slide because I take it for what it is, Ninja violence, but the unexplained "big brother" rivalry was really WTF

 

[Timstuff]

Yeah, that part of the story pretty much came out of the movie's ass. A lot of parts did, but that one in particular was one of the prime example of the movie's terrible script.

The audience I was in did give a pretty good laugh at the ketchup scene though. At least it hinted that the movie was somewhat self aware how ridiculously gory it was.

 

[Nivek]

Can't take anyone seriously that prefers G.I. Joe over this, but hey...

 

[Timstuff]

Well I can't take anyone seriously who prefers this over GI Joe.

J/K, but seriously, for all the bashing people throw at Stephen Somers, at least he knows what a tripod is (not to mention that GI Joe's script was oscarworthy compared to Ninja Assassin's).

 

[Nivek]

He may know what a "Tripod is" (I don't get that, but whatever), but it's too bad Summers thinks G.I. Joe is Megaforce. All the flick needed was some Barry Bostwick and Snake-Eyes break dancing.

 

[matrix_ghost]

I saw NA thursday and while i was a tad disappointed with the movie ,i still felt it was an enjoyable movie.
Also seriously if people think that this movie shakey cam is worse then ROTF , i really need to be smoking their pot.
Michael Bay forgot to press the zoom out button on the camera when he made ROTF apparantly because many of the scenes were shot in close up with the camera moving fast.

Did movie did have shakey cam however i could make out every fight scene . And btw because of the shakey cam , i've never liked the 2nd and 3rd bourne movies so it's not like i am a fan of it anyway.

Also i think there may be a reason for the shakey cam too. Remember that Tarantino shot the climatic fight of kill bill in color but because thhe MPAA would've given the movie a NC-17 rating , Tarantino changed it into a black and white sequence.
PErhaps it's same case here as well because the violence was on par with Kill Bill. Because personally i have a hard time believing that MCteigue would direct his action this way , especially considering the fact that he worked with the wachowski's for such a long time. You can clearly see that influence in the action scenes in V for Vendetta.

 

[블라스]

Ahh, the hype...where "enjoying a fun movie" comes second to "complaining about every single little thing".

I don't know what movie some of you people went to see, but in the one I saw (called Ninja Assassin), I was able to completely make out every action scene. Sure, a couple of them were dark, because it's a movie about ninjas, but even those had as much logic and coherence as you can get in a movie about ninjas.

I'm a huge fan of action/fight movies, and not to sound like an ass, but I probably know more about HK/Japanese/Korean action/fight choreography than anyone in here (HR, you know I ain't lying).

That being said....
The fights in NA has fast edits, but nowhere near as fast as some other modern action movies, where they're trying to hide the actors' lack of skill. The edits here were done as a style choice.
Fights had long-ish takes, were coherent and the shaky cam was barely noticeable compared to some others like the Bourne movies (which btw, have fantastic action).
Rain worked a lot, and if you had really paid attention instead of looking for the next thing to complain about, you would have noticed that a LOT of the sequences from the stunt/training videos actually made it to the movie. But whatever, you only need some idiot media critic saying "the action was impossible to see!" to have an entire flock of people spewing the same words on the internet.

Oh, and the bad story? Yeah, I guess those people didn't pay attention to James McTiegue when he said that he was making this movie as a tribute to those non-sensical, cheesy 80's ninja movies. You know, like the ones with Sho Kosugi, who was also in this movie?

But whatever. Couldn't see the fights? Didn't like the "dark" cinematography? Ugh, just watch something else please.

 

[CelticPredator]

I liked every fight in the movie. But hated everything else. I still liked it.

 

[Nivek]

Ahh, the hype...where "enjoying a fun movie" comes second to "complaining about every single little thing".

I don't know what movie some of you people went to see, but in the one I saw (called Ninja Assassin), I was able to completely make out every action scene. Sure, a couple of them were dark, because it's a movie about ninjas, but even those had as much logic and coherence as you can get in a movie about ninjas.

I'm a huge fan of action/fight movies, and not to sound like an ass, but I probably know more about HK/Japanese/Korean action/fight choreography than anyone in here (HR, you know I ain't lying).

That being said....
The fights in NA has fast edits, but nowhere near as fast as some other modern action movies, where they're trying to hide the actors' lack of skill. The edits here were done as a style choice.
Fights had long-ish takes, were coherent and the shaky cam was barely noticeable compared to some others like the Bourne movies (which btw, have fantastic action).
Rain worked a lot, and if you had really paid attention instead of looking for the next thing to complain about, you would have noticed that a LOT of the sequences from the stunt/training videos actually made it to the movie. But whatever, you only need some idiot media critic saying "the action was impossible to see!" to have an entire flock of people spewing the same words on the internet.

Oh, and the bad story? Yeah, I guess those people didn't pay attention to James McTiegue when he said that he was making this movie as a tribute to those non-sensical, cheesy 80's ninja movies. You know, like the ones with Sho Kosugi, who was also in this movie?

But whatever. Couldn't see the fights? Didn't like the "dark" cinematography? Ugh, just watch something else please.

Big

Said a lot of things I agree with.