BLU-RAY
REVIEW: NINJA
3/15/10
SYNOPSIS: It remains as true today as it did in the days of the ancient Samurai: the weapons of the Ninja hold legendary powers for both good men and evil. The deadly weapons of the last Koga Ninja have now been entrusted to an American Ninjutsu student (Scott Adkins, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Expendables, Undisputed) studying in Japan. Commanded by his Sensei to return to New York and protect the weapons at all cost, he must defeat the skilled Yakuza assassins hunting him and prevent the power of the weapons from falling into evil hands. The film also stars Todd Jensen and Kathryn Le.
REVIEW: Ninjas have been one of my favorite characters. They are such mysterious and deadly characters, and the fact that their loyalty lies within their best interest make them unpredictable. As a boy growing in the eighties I could not help myself to fall in love with all the ninja movies. From American Ninja one to five, A Life on Ninja, and Diamond Ninja Force were indeed my favorite movies; Heck I even enjoyed the Three Ninjas, and all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. However for some reason these enigmatic characters, with very few exceptions i.e. Shimobi, slowly began to disappear from Hollywood’s big screen. (I blame the Three Ninjas!) Last year the Wachoski Brother tried to bring the character back with their action film “Ninja Assassin,” and although the movie was highly entertaining it did not make me feel as excited as those eighty movies. Then, I crossed paths with “Ninja” a movie that I knew was not going to have the action, chorography, and special effects of the Wachoski Brother’s fail attempt, but at least I was expecting a decent and more elaborate story. Boy I was wrong!
Let me start for the positives, the Blu-ray disc front cover, The Moscow assassination scene, and the enemy’s cool suit. After that the movie just keeps going downhill; it is only in this scene were you get to see some of the characteristics of a ninja warrior as a master of concealment and assassination. The rest of the movie is just the same overplayed martial art story. The action which I was not expecting great scenes disappointed me, the fights seem to be taken out of a Van Damme movie the director did not get that ninjas are suppose to be silent, bloody, and deadly, instead they got the characters fighting in plain daylight or in a train full of people and to top it all he gets beat in some cases by mere toughs, and to top it all there is not one drop of blood or suggesting scene that make you think the fights are between lethal and harsh people. Character wise the movie gets a zero; in the whole movie there is not one appealing character all of them are classic clichés: The vengeful student, the Master’s beautiful daughter, the Evil Secret Society, and the abandoned American hero all of these characters make their appearances in this movie without adding anything to the movie. Acting wise I have no comment, all the actors did what they could. Scott Adkins tried to give his character some life unfortunately he did not succeed, his dialog and movements looked like he was trying too hard, as for Tsuyoshi Ihara, I believed he was the best of the bunch portraying Mazasuka, he got into his character and in some parts he looked menacing, and angry.
In conclusion the movie is just disappointing. It fails in delivering the mystique and tradition that these legendary characters have Also the story is neither appealing nor entertaining; it lacks action and direction, even the sound seems to be out of place. From the appealing front cover I thought these might be a movie that could be inspiring, I even had hopes to re-live my childhood with a creative and inspiring story, instead I got 90 minutes of pure boredom and awkwardness. There must be something really wrong with this movie when you considered watching The Three Little Ninjas tape to lift your spirit after seeing this one.
Review By Milo
milo@smartcine.com
BLU-RAY: The
film is presented in 1080P widescreen in a 2.35:1 aspect ration
preserving its theatrical format. The picture is just flawless,
giving the film and special effects clarity that only high
definition can provide. Not only the picture looks excellent in
this release, also the sound it is good, a 5.1 DTS-HD Master
Audio (48kHz/24bit) that provides a good complement to the
picture.
VIDEO:
Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1 aspect ratio) 1080P
AUDIO:
English 5.1 DTS HD/Dolby Digital
Spanish English
Subtitles: English, Spanish
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