I’ve just watched one of the most action packed, martial art driven, blood splattering movie I’ve ever seen in the form of Ninja Assassin. The movie is directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) and stars Naomie Harris, a Korean pop idol called Rain, Ben Miles, and a former James Bond (Die Another Day) badie, Rick Yune. One of the main selling points of Ninja Assassin is that it was produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski Bros. (The Matrix Trilogy) and was written by the same chap who wrote the screenplay for Clint Eastwood’s Changeling, J. Michael Straczynski – although this would fall into a slightly different genre!

Synopsis from Comingsoon: Ninja Assassin follows Raizo (Rain), one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as a child, he was transformed into a trained killer by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. But haunted by the merciless execution of his friend by the Clan, Raizo breaks free from them… and vanishes. Now he waits, preparing to exact his revenge.

OK, so this movie is action packed for sure. Barely 2 minutes goes by without one of the most spectacular martial arts scene you’ve seen since the last one in this movie. The special effects guys must have been working over time to supply enough fake blood to fill the screen! That said, I think most of the blood effects shots will have been done in post but the melding together of the live action martial arts, the amazing fight choreography and stunning parkour is just simply awesome to watch.

The dialogue in this film is pretty poor at times and the story is one we’ve seen over and over again but I can’t think of a movie which combines the marriage martial arts, lighting, visual effects, special effects, direction and overall choreographys well as Ninja Assasin does.You sort of forget that the acting is a bit shoddy as you’re too busy waiting for the next action sequence to come along which is never far away!

One of my favourite scenes of a fight taking place which you only really get to see in the circle of light created by a torch. The direction by James McTeigue must have been a nightmare trying to get everything that happens in shot throughout the 99 minute runtime but he does a fantastic job at pulling you into the movie.

As I said above, don’t buy Ninja Assassin if you want an original story or decent dialogue, but if you want to see some of the best fight choreography mixed together with unbelievable martial arts, parkour and a LOT of blood, then this one is for you!

Check out this exclusive clip from the movie which will give you a bit more of an idea of what I’m talking about.

Ninja Assassin is available to buy now on DVD and Blu Ray.

We’ve been given this brand new and exclusive clip from Ninja Assassin called Do You Remember? As you’ll see when you watch this clip, the movie is rather hi-octane and this is just 1 minute of the entire film! Ninja Assassin is released on DVD and Blu Ray 17th May. The movie is directed by James McTeigue and stars Naomie Harris, Rain, Ben Miles and Rick Yune.

If you’ve not already seen it, we’re giving you the chance to win a signed Ninja Assassin poster and a copy of the Blu-ray! Click here to enter the competiton and for a sneak peak into the movie itself, watch the clip below.

When I saw this trailer for Ninja Assassin I was expectingly curious, then I saw the test footage (see below) with the actor Rain going through the chorography of fighting scenes which was incredible and was even more excited by the prospect of a Ninja film from the makers of the Matrix, so it has to be great right?

Wrong. Director James McTeigue, the Wachowski Brothers and co have managed to take a great concept and ruin a majority of it by the overuse of CGI, some terrible dialogue and a plot that was at times nothing short of ridiculous.

The story is of a Ninja called Raizo (Rain) who as a young child was taken from the streets to be trained as a Ninja killing machine who is then banished as he fails to follow the code of the Ozunu clan by his master played by the Ninja acting legend Sho Kosugi. Raizo presumed dead waits to get revenge for the death of his friend and the attempt on his life.

This part of the film is ok with Rain performing brilliantly as Raizo with the Ninja fights and all the cool Ninja moves which is what we all want to see in our Ninja films but then that film would only have lasted an hour or so, so what is added is a ridiculously contrived story of Europol getting involved where female agent Mika(Naomie Harris) has found a money trail linking numerous political assassinations to Ninjas on the basis that 100 lbs of gold were paid to an account and history tells that this was always the payment Ninjas were paid.

Mika’s boss Ryan Maslow (Ben Miles) gets involved with the Ninja story and from what I can understand both get investigated by the CIA, FBI etc as they are getting to close to “the truth” and during the night Ninjas come to kill off Mika but she is saved by Raizo.

We then follow the story of Raizo keeping Mika safe, avoiding the government agencies, trying to find/fight his former clan brothers and to kill his former mentor and father figure Ozunu that ends with a climatic stupid battle of Ninjas vs government soldiers and a potentially great but in the end disappointing fight where Raizo faces Ozunu.

As I said the plot is ridiculous with some overlong exposition which are put in place just to set up each round of Ninja fighting Ninjas where Raizo takes on almost endless amounts of foes almost entirely in the dark, which is where I have my main problem with the film. When you watch the excellent footage below of Rain training for the film you get a real sense of the technical and physical ability of these martial artists and most of it is lost in the over use of dark scenes where you lose all visual reference of what is going on as the camera zooms in and out, cuts rapidly and the slow motion takes much of the momentum the action tries to build.

The Ninjas have added blur to them as they move which I thought looked stupid and unnecessary, there was loads of CGI Ninja throwing stars being thrown from every dirrecion on screen that looked messy and then of course there is the amazingly bad CGI blood that spurts out of every decapitation which looks terrible and when you look back at films like Kill Bill where the bride faces off in the House of Blue Leaves, there is really no need for the CGI blood. It just made it all to comical and cartoony when it could have been something so much more exciting.

In the opening scene of the film we witness a room with 10 or so bad guys that all get taken out in an exciting and visually gory assault by an unseen Raizo who hides in the shadows which is slightly comical but yet brutal and cool to watch and its the direction the film should have gone in probably worth seeing itself as we see the stealth and killing skills of these legendary assassins in all its glory.

The Ozunu Clan’s training of the children and a young Raizo rising to a Ninja is great and quite entertaining that sets up the mythology well and shows a horrible method in getting to that level. Rain shows incredible dedication to the role that stands out amongst the supporting cast but that’s not hard against their wooden performances that almost ruin the film and so in the end the bad outweighs the good in Ninja Assassin unfortunately, but there is enough to please fans and anyone needing to unwind for some brainless action and violence but I will always feel it missed a big opportunity to relaunch the Ninja Movie genre which is a real shame.

Ninja Assassin is out on the 8th January.

With Ninja Assassin going on general release in the USA, a new red band trailer has been released online and it is very different from the previous trailer. Although this new trailer has been released to help promote the film for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I suspect the complete change in tone from the last trailer is partially to help combat the overwhelming negative criticism the film has generally received so far.

Ninja Assassin has been criticized by many for its overly complex and unnecessary plot, although it has received much praise for its stylish action sequences. Whereas the previous trailer was more dramatic and attempted to display some of the film’s back-story, this new trailer is basically an entire minute of nonstop ninja action.

The film stars Korean pop idol Rain, is produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski Bros. (The Matrix Trilogy), is written by prolific science fiction and comic book writer J. Michael Straczynski (who also wrote Clint Eastwood’s Changeling), and is directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta).

Ninja Assassin is now on general release in the USA and will be released on January 22nd 2010 in the UK.

Ten years ago, the Wachowski brothers, little known at the time, released their second movie as directors, The Matrix. A product of their love of Hong Kong action movies and Manga, it became huge. The mix of stylish action and spiritual introspection struck a chord, particularly with teenage boys searching for an identity. Two inferior sequels followed, but they did’nt diminish the cultural impact the first movie made, and the Wachowskis were set – they could write their own cheques.

 Their follow up movie, Speed Racer, got very mixed reviews. They did, however, unearth a very talented young martial arts actor, Rain. Another young man, by the name of James McTeigue, had worked as a second unit director on all three Matrix movies. Having learnt his trade from the talented brothers, McTeigue made his directorial debut with 2006′s V for Vendetta. The Wachowski, along with their Matrix producer Joel Silver, brought these two talented men together for a project, Ninja Assassin.

 Rain plays Raizo, one of the world’s deadliest assassins. He learnt his trade from the shadowy Ozunu Clan, having been abducted by them as a small boy. Rain, from South Korea, is better known as a singer than an actor. Also a talented dancer and designer, his only movie credit before Speed Racer was 2006 Korean film I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK. A friend of Raizo is executed by his clan, causing him to question his loyalty to them. He decides he can no longer work for them, and disappears. In hiding, he awaits the right time to wreak revenge on his former ‘family’.

 Actress Naomie Harris plays Mika Coretti, a Europol agent. She is following a money trail picked up during an investigation into a chain of political assassinations. Harris is probably best known for the part of Tia Dalma in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and is something of an up and coming star. Coretti’s investigation leads her too close to the Ozunu Clan, and she becomes a mark.

 The clan’s team of killers is led by Takeshi, played by Rick Yune. Yune is an actor and writer. He featured in 2002′s Tomorrow Never Dies, and more recently in 2008′s The Fifth Commandment, which he also wrote, and Alone in the Dark II. Inevitably, Raizo and Coretti join forces after the former assassin saves the agent’s life, and together they hatch a plan to shut down the Clan’s operations for good.

 Australian director James McTeigue is well positioned to helm this action thriller, having learnt the art of stylistic martial arts and gun play from the two brothers, working alongside them during filming of their revolutionary trilogy. In the past he also worked as second assistant director on the Street Fighter movie. Like the Wachowskis, McTeigue too has an interest in manga and anime. His debut V for Vendetta, also produced by the Wachowskis, featured just a little of their favoured martial arts action. Though containing some good ideas, the story unfortunately was a bit of a mess. V had been called ‘unfilmable’ in the past, and that assertion was proven correct. To hear what McTeigue has to say about Ninja Assassin go here.

 The script for Ninja Assassin however should be good, despite the cliched synopsis. Legendary screenwriter J Michael Straczynski re-drafted the script at the producers’ request, as they were not completely happy with it. Stracynski is best known for his ground breaking TV series Babylon 5, highly regarded as one of the best space-set television series of all time by science fiction fans. He worked as show runner on that series. He is also responsible for writing the adaptation of the Max Brooks novel World War Z for Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B, along with a screenplay for a potential Silver Surfer movie.

 Based on the trailer (which you can see here), the fight scenes in Ninja Assassin are awesome. The kung fu is fast, the gun play well choreographed. With the influence of The Matrix looming large, the movie is bound to be stylish, possibly to the detriment of it’s substance. Unlike The Matrix, the scenes on show are very darkly lit. Partly a product of it’s shadowy subject matter, but also presumably indicative of it’s lower budget.

 With 2012 still at the beginning of it’s run, and Twilight: New Moon having just opened yesterday, Ninja Assassin may struggle at the box office. An unknown star and director mean there is little name value attached, other than the Wachowskis as producers. This movie’s audience is going to be young men, teens and early twenties, searching for a remedy to Twilight fever. Nevertheless, with some great, talented people involved, Ninja Assassin could be one of the best kung fu action movies produced in the west.

 Ninja Assassin opens in the US next Friday 27th November. It does not reach the UK until 8th January.

Bazmann - You can now follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/baz_mann