Ninja Assassins

REVIEW: Ninja Assassins IMDB
INTRO STUFF

• Watching the show 'V'
  • doesn't seem as scary as the old one - more of a mind game (technology doesn't always make for better movies it sometimes stiffles creativity)
  • Sci-Fi meeting set for actors - Ann [Nora] (Morena Baccarin) and Alan Tudyk [Wash] from Firefly, Rheka Sharm [Tory Foster] one of the 5 from Battlestar, Elizabeth Mitchel [Juliet Burke] from Lost.
  • Alan dies, comes back, dies again (he was great in Knights Tale), good supporting actor and I think he's ready for a main role - give him a police comedy type of movie, something he can be serious, but interject comedy.
• Going to Philadelphia
• New job is keeping me really busy
  • Call of Duty and Dragon Age on xBox
  • Did see pilot of V, did not really grab me...
  • Started Playing WoW again with my wife...

SYNOPSIS

• ...ninjas are assassins with special powers, one defects, all the other ninjas do not like him anymore...
• I think I can do a good "trailer guy" with this one...

WALKING IN (FEARS & THOUGHTS)

• Blood fest? - Yep
• Bad plot? - pretty much
• Good effects and great fights - oh yes
• Bad acting - not really, Stephen Marcus (Kingpin), Naomie Harris (Mika), and Yuki Iwamoto (Yakuza Couch) did a great job
• The name of the movie really says it all...
• I had no idea at all what it was about (other than title), was worried about too much martial arts (I like a 10/90 martial arts/gunplay in my action flicks)

OPENING SCENE

• Not for kids - agreed!
• Kill Bill director? - lots of people cut in half and lose limbs...That would be Quentin Tarantino
• Ninja powers seem to be inconsistent
  • Kill everyone with a gun till they show up at their house? - I actually have some thoughts on that one...
• Felt like a video game movie
• To me, felt more like a Western Attempt to make an Eastern film...
• Too much in the flashbacks...they could have gotten the point across in 1/3 of the time...
• Great fight with the big guy 'Kingpin' (Stephen Marcus) for the gold watch
• Good plot line with the girl and splitting the parts of their relationship with the movie's flow - not giving us all of their relationship at once
• Felt an absolute disconnect to the other characters (investigators?)
• I didn't like seeing the ninjas vs the guys with the guns when they lost. It ruins a part of the cool stigma of the ninjas and changed their supposed powers earlier in the movie. This should have been avoided in my opinion.

...OTHER SCENES

• blood to ketchup transition Missed that one....
• Sponsorship:
  • Pepsi sponsored -
• VW sponsored - took a beating with ninja stars and kept running - That was a CC, and I actually test drove one earlier on the day I saw the movie...strange moment.
  • sat in front of the hotel with all of the ninja stars still sticking out of it like it was supposed to be there (the ninja hood scoop)
• 100 lbs of gold - no room for inflation? Neat idea, its inflation is built in...
• Short Political statement - "is this your own private Guantanamo?"
• Ninja Vs. SWAT, who will win? ANSWER, whoever is attacking, neither group can defend for crap!
• Ninjas? Honor? Come on!

QUESTIONS:

• People have been born with their heart moved? fairly common thing in eastern storytelling...
• why would a rogue ninja organization control the world? Everyone uses them, but not everyone knows about them and somehow protects them?
  • Only the people "at the top" know about them, and they are the ones "pulling the strings"
• Ninjas can kill everyone with guns in a warehouse, but not in their own back lawn?
• The ninjas are somehow protected by all governments but this government attacks and destroys the ninjas in the end?
  • It seemed to be the Chinese, actually...
• Yakuza finally remembers his super ninja powers (disappear in the shadow) after his girl gets stabbed?

THE MACGUFFIN:

• Ninja Powers...

CLOSING THOUGHTS

CHUCK Rating: 2

• Positives
  • Great fight scenes
  • Great cinematics (ending scene overlooking the mountains)
  • It will make a great video game
• Negatives
  • Inconsistency - Super power ninjas do not lose to guys with guns
  • Felt like a cold shower jumping into the plot line, no chance to get to know the investigators at all.

MIKE Rating: 3.5

• Positives
  • Said what it was, was what it said.
• Negatives
  • Too much on the fashbacks, I get it already!