#29
Post
by ciro22 » Fri Jan 22, 2010 10:57 am
Given all of the comments and opinions that have been expressed about the movie so far (mostly negative and critical with some bits of praise) the particularly funny thing is that everybody is right in their own way...
The criticisms you can level at the film are clear - there's an origami paper-thin plot, all the usual cliches are thrown at you like Ninja Stars, the actors stomp around the scenery like sumo wrestlers, and the biggest battle in the film is between the martial artists and the CGI artists...
HOWEVER I'd argue that this is exactly the kind of movie that its film-makers are trying to offer you!
It's a reference back to all those Ninja movies of the 80's but with a modern update, and guess what, those films had thin plots and bad acting, etc. but the focus of these films was on always trying to deliver entertaining action.
For starters, the film is called "Ninja Assassin" and it is also rated 18, so really there's a pretty clear signal to the movie-going public about just what kind of film it is...
There are also certain indications of their intent:
It can't be a coincidence that the bad guy is played by Shô Kosugi who was the big star of all those 80's Ninja films; Plus, the main producers are the Wachowskis Brothers (The Matrix etc.) and they always hark back to (although some would say steal from) the films that they enjoyed from their youth; Finally, one of the screenwriters is J. Michael Straczynski and he certainly knows how to deliver proper plots and dialogue when he wants to (e.g. The Changeling).
So it all seems to me like they actually intended to make the movie the way it is. Indeed, a lot of the appeal of the film comes from the fact that they just don't make films like this anymore. That they have made an R-rated film with visceral violence - when most films (including even horror films) are desperately trying to dumb down to a more commercial and teen-friendly 12A - is actually worth some praise.
There will always be people out there who loved the 80's style action movie (and, if we're being realistic, people who just love films with violent action). They are the target market, they are the people who will probably love this film, and in that respect the film is probably achieving what it set out to do.
Last edited by
ciro22 on Fri Jan 22, 2010 11:03 am, edited 1 time in total.