Ninja Assassin, directed by James McTeigue and starring Rain as Raizo, is a throwback to the 1980’s action flick.  I say that because this movie has a lot of bloody action, but a weak supporting story and some of the special effects look like they are straight out of the 80’s. In particular, the throwing stars look like they were drawn onto the movie cell instead of using computer generated graphics.  But all the unnecessary violence makes up for the lack of story and poor visual effects.  You know how we associate Michael Bay with explosions; well James McTeigue is the same way with blood.  Lots and lots of blood with various severed limbs in there just for good measure. 

What little story there is revolves around a group of ninjas hired to assassinate political leaders around the world, with Interpol investigating the possibility that such an organization could exist.   But let’s face it.  When you hear the name Ninja Assassin you don’t immediately think about an award winning story. Nope, you want to see the movie for the same reason I do, all the mind blowing action. So, how was the action?

The movie starts off well enough with an outstanding opening sequence and one of my favorite sections of the movie was seeing the ninjas appear out of the shadows which gives them that demon quality and someone you don’t want to mess with.  But then it follows with 40 minutes of needless (mind numbing) story all of which could have been told in 5 minutes.  The focus during this time was of the characters from Interpol and a mix of training sequences.   Once the finale starts, we get thrust back into the action but due to the quick nature and dark environment it’s hard to see and confusing at times of what is actually going on.

Upon my exit of the theater, I heard a lot of “that was awesome” and “good movie,” but I have to disagree.  This movie was okay at best, with weak characters, a cheesy plot, but good fighting. One cool scene was a hand to hand fight in the middle of a highway with traffic.  But then we see an all out assault, police against the ninjas, guns against traditional weapons. But what a shock...the guns won the fight.  I went into this movie with low expectations and left the same way.  I may watch the movie again… when it makes it to TNT and all the cool stuff is edited out.