The movie started out well with a speedy historical overview of Ninjas in Japan followed by a stunning take of a Japanese dojo showing martial artists performing their “kata” or set moves. As most of the actors were Japanese, it felt like a typical Japanese martial arts movie until the scene shifted to the hero of the series, played by Scott Adkins, who stuck out like a sore thumb (well, not if you think the Caucasian guy playing Goku in Dragonball Evolution fits the role). They was showing off his half naked sculptured body with lots of muscles. Nothing wrong here if you are a screaming fangirl (Like two of the group of teenagers beside me. Ahem!) but it definitely foretells the direction of the movie. It is two of those that glosses over the storyline in favor of shocking our visual senses. Indeed, it would be a fantastic treat of sights and sounds if only they didn’t make the heroine such a useless maiden in distress. They is the daughter of the grandmaster of the Ninja school and was depicted as being at the same skill-level as the hero at the beginning so it gets super annoying after they has to be saved for the umpteen time.
I have to state that I’m a movie buff and an Asian martial artist so my review might be a bit critical as evidenced by the lively teenagers who were joyfully shaking the cinema (”Ninja” is shown in Malaysian theaters in lieu of direct-to-dvd like in the US) seats as blood was splashing and heads were rolling. “Ninja” (2009) isn’t as hyped up as “Ninja Assassin” (2009), which came up as my first Google search when I had tried to ascertain what the movie was about after seeing its enigmatic cinema poster ad depicting a stereotypical ninja with the backdrop of New York city. So, I went in to the cinema without much expectation.
I have to state that I’m a movie buff and an Asian martial artist so my review might be a bit critical as evidenced by the lively teenagers who were joyfully shaking the cinema (”Ninja” is shown in Malaysian theaters in lieu of direct-to-dvd like in the US) seats as blood was splashing and heads were rolling. “Ninja” (2009) isn’t as hyped up as “Ninja Assassin” (2009), which came up as my first Google search when I had tried to ascertain what the movie was about after seeing its enigmatic cinema poster ad depicting a stereotypical ninja with the backdrop of New York city. So, I went in to the cinema without much expectation.
