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Starring: Rain, Joon, Naomie Harris, Rick Yune, Ben Miles, Sho Kosugi
Directed By: James McTeigue
Produced By: Joel Silver, Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski, Grant Hill
Written By: Matthew Sand, J. Michael Straczynski
Company: Warner Bros. Pictures
Raizo (Rain) is one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as a child, he was transformed into a trained killer by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. But haunted by the merciless execution of his friend by the Clan, Raizo breaks free from them…and vanishes. Now he waits, preparing to exact his revenge. In Berlin, Europol agent Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) has stumbled upon a money trail linking several political murders to an underground network of untraceable assassins from the Far East. Defying the orders of her superior, Ryan Maslow (Ben Miles), Mika digs into top secret agency files to learn the truth behind the murders. Her investigation makes her a target, and the Ozunu Clan sends a team of killers, led by the lethal Takeshi (Rick Yune), to silence her forever. Raizo saves Mika from her attackers, but he knows that the Clan will not rest until they are both eliminated. Now, entangled in a deadly game of cat and mouse through the streets of Europe, Raizo and Mika must trust one another if they hope to survive…and finally bring down the elusive Ozunu Clan.
So, ask yourself; when was the last time you saw a good Ninja movie?
Well?
It’s been a while hasn’t it? It’s okay you can admit it.
Now, when was the last time you saw a good Ninja movie with really good special F/X?
You’re really having a hard time answering this one aren’t you?
Well wait no further, Ninja Assassin will fill that void!
You want action? You’ll get action – lots of it!
You want a good old martial arts/kung fu plot line? You got it! Face it people martial arts movie plot lines can be basically broken down into one word – Revenge.
You want special F/X that will make you go “Oooh” and “Aaah” like it’s 4th of July in November? They give you producers Joel Silver and the Wachowski Brothers!
Hello!
Ninja Assassin is like “V for Vendetta meets 300!”
They give you that “We’re going to show you some really cool special F/X here without going all full tilt Matrix on you; such like we did in V, but with some new touches AND we’re going to add barrels, not buckets, barrels of blood!”
There were more than a few moments of going “Whoa!” out loud in the theater from what I just saw in the action. Also when you see a Wachowski movie you can’t help but say to yourself “Alright guys, how are you going to top the fights from Matrix?” Because really, that’s all we fans ever think about. Well people, there is a very cool fight in this movie involving a flashlight so you’ll have to go see it to be the judge if it ranks up there with their other productions.
Asian star Rain who plays ‘Raizo’ our hero, in real life is a singer, dancer, model and designer, but now he can add “Action Star” to his list. Martial arts star Shô Kosugi is the ninja master ‘Ozunu’ and brings it “Ninja Old School Style” as only he can and Naomie Harris as ‘Mika’ reminds me of N'Bushe Wright in Blade as the ‘innocent woman caught in the middle of all of this mess’. The acting is solid throughout from everyone and the script is pretty good. Director James McTeigue keeps the pace moving so that the scenes between the action sequences don’t bog it down. Let’s face it folks where here to see action not Shakespeare.
Ninja Assassin is a good time. It’s a movie people. Movies are there to entertain us and this one does. It gives us that for 1 hour and 33 minutes. If you’re a martial arts fan you’ll definitely enjoy this.
