Ninja Assassin review

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before or not, but I'm extremely behind on watching movies. I'm one of those people who just don't have the spare cash to go to the movie theater whenever I want to watch a movie that I really really want to watch. Ninja Assassin was one of those movies in 2009 I wanted to see something fierce but just couldn't spare the cash to go see it. Thanks to HBO GO, I got a chance to watch it. Finally!


In the poll question: Ninja or Pirate, I have always cried "Ninja!" They're stealthy, quick, can kill from a distance and up close.This movie just secured my passionate love, love, love for ninjas with some grotesque bloody cruelty.

I'm sure everyone's already watched Ninja Assassin, but for the one or two person(s), here's a 2-minute run down of the movie: Takes deep breath

The opening of the movie is pretty much how all the fight scenes will go down: Ninja(s) come out of nowhere/shadows and kick ass with loads of blood spurting everywhere. Awesome! Raizo (performed by Rain) is a trained ninja assassin since childhood, and he has just turned against his "family," his "clan," and now, he's the target - along with Mika (Naomie Harris), a researcher for Euro-Pol - of the Ninja Assassin clan. The entire movie revolves around Raizo and Mika trying to escape the ninjas while exposing them. Side note: Don't people understand how hard it is to expose ninjas?!? As they are running around, there are handfuls of brutal, gory fights. The "fire" fight between Euro-Pol and ninjas, after Euro-Pol tazed the crap out of Raizo, caught my attention, because who in their right might would bring a gun to a shadow ninja knife fight? I'll tell you who: Euro-Pol! They tried to shoot at the ninjas, who had the benefit of the darkness! The final "fire" fight was literally a fire fight. The set up: The ninja assassin clan has successfully taken Raizo back home in the mountains to face "trial" and "execution" after Mika triggered this GPS capsule that she slipped to Raizo. Just as Takeshi is about to poke Raizo with his sword, Raizo coughs up the GPS capsule and the alarm is rung as the camera pans out, showing helicopters and tanks outside the compound walls. Then comes the final ka-BOOM!

Euro-Pol lets off some cool looking explosions on the mountain compound, while ninja assassins are scattering all over the place - throwing shuriken (throwing stars/knifes) at agents. Mika cuts Raizo free of his bondage, and Raizo goes running off after Takeshi and Master Ozunu. Raizo and Takeshi face off inside one of the buildings as explosions tear down their battlefield. Needless to say, after some painful looking strikes and blows, Raizo defeats Takeshi and runs off to deal with his "father," Master Ozunu. Master Ozunu uses the shadows to his advantage and manages to nail Raizo with several crucial blows, but Raizo - naturally - has the last strike. Raizo finally uses the shadows to kill - he's has never used the shadows to kill, only to protect and save - and returns the bleeding favor to Master Ozunu and in the end kills him in one blow with a sword... that is, after Ozunu stabs Mika - who was stupid enough to interfere with a gun and not run away when Raizo said to run - right through the heart. After Raizo kills Master Ozunu, he carries the limp Mika out to the Euro-Pol vehicles, where Mika announces that her heart isn't in its usual spot: it's in the right side of the chest cavity rather than the left. The movie closes with Raizo climbing over the compound wall and staring straight into the sunrise. Side thought: There is a side story of a girl that is raised to be an assassin along with Raizo, who changes her mind about being ninja assassin and attempts to escape. She is caught and executed by Master Ozunu and Takeshi. She is the reason why Raizo is all protective and not really into the whole assassination idea when we meet him.

I must admit, this is definitely an action movie. The dialog isn't as impressive as I usually prefer, but the action is the nut grabber - and the grab was painfully wonderful. I say "painfully," because I was jumping with every bloody blow of destruction/death. The blood was realistic enough that I was squirming in my seat, and every strike was very precise and believable. Rain truly belongs to the "ninja" ranks that includes Sho Kosugi, who portrays Master Ozunu. Not only is he (Rain) physically fit, his eyes capture the intensity of every battle he's involved in. Rain's English is as you'd expect an Asian whose not used to speaking English would be, which is awesome as he speaks English better than his character (even I have to be talking to one of my relatives to pull of the Asian English. I can't just turn it on and off.). Another wonderful aspect I thoroughly enjoyed (still enjoy) was/is the camera shots. The angles, close ups, pan outs are all beautifully choreographed, and I can't think of anything that didn't look natural... wait. there is one moment. During the first Euro-Pol versus Ninja Assassins (setting: in the Euro-Pol "hide out"), a few shots of the Euro-Pol firing at the ninjas and the ninjas chucking shuriken at the agents were a bit too close and flashy - as in all you could see were the fire blasts from the guns and the little light reflecting off of the blades of the shuriken. I know the scene was to show off the ninjas' abilities and all, but it felt as if I was watching Transformers all over again. It was that up close and squint-inducing (back the F up!).

Overall, Ninja Assassin gets 5 stars, 5 thumbs up, 5 whatever rating out of 5 you want to use. Worth watching, and I may possibly dare say worth buying the Blu-ray.

Until next movie -- Legion?