Rated R for strong bloody stylized violence throughout, and language.

99 mins.

Directed By: James McTeigue

Written By: Matthew Sand, J. Michael Straczynski

Starring: Rain, Sung Kang, Randall Duk Kim, Jonathan Chan-Pensley

Review:

This has been one of my least favorite films that I saw so far during this holiday season.  I am torn as I write this review.  I love action films and love violent movies but feel as though I would truly be betraying everything I hold in high regards for a quality film if I were to give Ninja Assassin a high star rating.  The story is horrible and hard to follow because of the poor flow of the editing and the use of flashbacks which I hate when used excessively.  The characters have very little dimension and depth and the acting is horrible.  Rain does however do a decent performance in the lead role as Raizo.  The rest of the actors are horrible.  The dialogue is laughable and thankfully sparse.

The plot follows the life of a young ninja who decides to go against an order given by the head of his ninja clan causing a giant target to be put on his head and forcing him to remain on the run.  That is until an Interpol Officer stumbles upon the ninja clans while doing research for an unsolved case.  This causes her to become a target and so Raizo decides to protect her and seek vengeance on the clan.

Believe me I have not given anything away that could not be ascertained by the previews which showed a lot of the story and many of the cool scenes in the film.  The only parts of the film I liked were the fighting sequences which there were three cool ones.  I loved the ballet like movements of the ninjas and the fighting style is awesome.  I would love to have a ninja film that is so much better written.  The boards on IMDB state that the script was rewritten a few weeks before shooting began which makes for a disaster in my opinion.

The Bottom Line:

If you love blood filled action sequences in films that have a horrible plot and characters that do not have any depth than Ninja Assassin is for you.  I personally do not recommend seeing this in the theaters, wait until it comes out on DVD.  Also on a funny side note, Ninja stands for Assassin so technically the title is Assassin Assassin which is ludicrous.

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