Blu-Ray Review: ‘Ninja Assassin’ Upstages Physical Feats With Bloody Effects

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CHICAGO – Maybe a film called “Ninja Assassin” starring Korean pop star Rain would be some people’s idea of a good time, but not mine. The best martial arts films are the ones that delve into the psychology of a warrior, turning grandstanding set-pieces into the artful externalization of his (or her) inner battles. “Ninja Assassin” may contain lots of martial arts, but the film is as much a work of art as a McDonald’s Happy Meal.

This is the epitome of disposable mass-marketed entertainment. It’s a C-grade B-movie with a D-list star, upstaging A-grade stunts with digital trickery that puts the “F” in FX. It’s the kind of time-waster destined to be played in the background of a teenager’s birthday party. The kids will generally ignore it (save for a few eye-catching kills), as the mediocre action fills their peripheral vision. It’s no fun watching a video game if you aren’t able to play it yourself.

Blu-Ray Rating: 2.0/5.0

The film opens in classic monster movie fashion, as an entire bar is massacred by a deadly ninja who’s said to not be human, but “a demon sent straight from hell” (haven’t heard that line before). Since the ninja moves with a swiftness that warrants him invisible, his victims appear to self-destruct like targets in a shoot ‘em up. If you aren’t annoyed and repelled by this pre-title sequence, then chances are you just might like the picture. The plot concerns good-hearted ninja Raizo (Rain), who was trained to be an assassin by the Ozunu Clan. He now seeks vengeance on the clan itself, led by a Sensei (veteran martial artist Sho Kosugi) who called for the death of Raizo’s childhood sweetheart. The wronged ninja joins forces with a plucky forensic scientist (Naomie Harris), who finds her life in danger after linking a recent spate of political assassinations to the clan.

Korean pop star Rain takes the titular role in James McTeigue’s Ninja Assassin.
Photo credit: Warner Home Video

This is all relatively diverting in a silly sort of way, but director James McTeigue (“V for Vendetta”) doesn’t know when to quit piling on the excess, obscuring fight scenes with either shadowy locations or distracting visual effects. The set-pieces, particularly a fight set in the midst of speeding traffic, are disposed of before their potential is realized. It’s a shame that the film was released before the current 3-D revolution, since McTeigue thrusts an assortment of weapons at the screen, as if straining to break the third dimension. Rain is certainly a formidable physical specimen, but his acting is downright embarrassing to watch in a close-up. His line delivery is laughably flat, evoking everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Tommy Wiseau (why must his character speak English anyway?). “Ninja Assassin” is little more than tongue-in-cheek trash.

Ninja Assassin was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on March 16th, 2010. Photo credit: Warner Home Video

The film is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 2.4:1 aspect ratio), accompanied by English, French and Spanish audio tracks, and includes a DVD and digital copy of the film. An 18-minute featurette explores the admittedly fascinating lore of ninja mythology, discussing everything from the Warring States period and Hattori Hanzo to the history behind some of the coolest weapons used in the film (Raizo’s swooping double-edged blade is called a “Kyoketsu Shoge”). The ninja arts are, in the words of one master, all about “harmony with nature and human beings,” a belief that viewers certainly won’t be able to glean from the movie. This documentary is so intriguing that it makes one wish McTeigue hadn’t reduced ninjas to crude caricatures worthy of “Mortal Kombat.”

Another featurette illustrates how the filmmakers aimed to turned the art of the ninja into an extreme sport, hiring X-gamers to inject the familiar moves with fresh adrenaline. Yet since the film obscures most of the choreography, this ten-minute extra offers the only footage that may satisfy true fans of martial arts. The mini-doc also reveals a trick the filmmakers stole from Zack Snyder’s “300,” which involves the mounting of three cameras (each with a different lens—wide, medium and tight) through a prism. This allows the filmmakers to shift between the angles without a cut, thanks to a digital zoom. Unfortunately, this technique only results in making the onscreen action look more artificial, while giving moviegoers visual whiplash. The disc also includes a featurette on training Rain (whose best asset was his “great mental capacity for the action”), and seven minutes of deleted scenes, none of which involve fighting.

By MATT FAGERHOLM Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com matt@hollywoodchicago.com