Studio: Warner Bros.

Reviewed by: Jonny Botsch

The best a studio or filmmaker could hope for is to be the first movie that fills a void for a particular genre that has been neglected for years. When Wes Craven and Miramax released Scream in 1996, they single handedly brought back horror movies from beyond the grave. Now James McTeigue and the Wachowskis will attempt to fill a void left since the eighties, ninja movies. How successful will they be in the eyes of the public still remains to be seen, but whether or not they made the ninja movie to end all ninja movies is not in question.

With fight scenes that rival Tarantino's Kill Bill and a relentless pace, very little can be critisized from fans of ninja flicks. Korean pop sensation Rain greatly impresses (kinda like Justin Timberlake in Alpha Dog) and the singer has definitely opened himself to a whole new audience. Slicing his way accross the screen, Rain's character Raizo weilds his Kusarigama (a blade at the end of a lengthy chain) with lightning speed and deadly accuracy, making pulped meat of dozens of adversaries. Geisers of blood gush from severed limbs as mutilated body parts that were once people fall to the ground. Although there is certainly a plot in effect through out the movie, it is almost incidental to stringing together the crazy battles and the flood of ninja lore that we, the audience, have been starved for in the last two decades.

McTeigue, director of V for Vendetta and protege of the Wachowski Brothers, is cementing his place in cinematic history. The script, penned by comic scribe J. Michael Straczynski has some cheese layered through out but nothing horribly offensive. The story follows our super ninja as he abandons his adopted ninja family and then takes revenge on them for their ruthlessness. Nothing fancy. The art is in the execution and the movie is loaded with execution!

On the picky side one could complain that there were Korean actors playing Japanese parts, but hey, it's a movie! There are also a couple instances where the CG gore effects were a little too obvious or the editing was too fast, but these are small issues overall, only worth mentioning for the haters. Ninja Assassin is the movie ninja fans have been waiting for, and it's one to catch in the theatre.