Alright, so I just saw it today and I have to say, I am pretty satisfied, as well as disappointed, with this film.
To get the bad parts out of the way, I have to say that the editing of the trailer was much more well done than the editing of the actual film. I don't know if I got some cheap knockoff version, but the trailer really felt epic, with the logo being all serious and voice overs. For example, when I was watching the trailer, there were some pretty cool one-liners like "It's just you and me" and "CAAASSSEEYYYYY!!!!", but none of which I actually heard in the film. When I was watching it, the first thing that came up was some epic Japanese paintings that was paired with some overtly long scrolling text that I couldn't care less about. Then the credits started to roll, being in this irritating Asian font and having shiny glows to imitate the shimmering of metal, only to be followed by some half-assed "Ninja" logo that was made out of ninja stars (it even made the schwing sound and spun around. REALLY CORNY). Like, what the hell happened to the original logo?
A lot of the film I could see could have and should have been left out (Like Ihara at the airport, Hijii in the shower, The Ring initiation ceremony, etc). Some scenes felt like introductory parts of the film that ended up being put later in the film (Like how the Sensei was describing the Yoroi-Bitsu, which, should have been the first thing in the movie, not like the 3rd thing). The pacing was also way too fast. At times you need a breather to take the situation seriously, they flip to something completely different (As in, they'll move onto a completely different plot concerning the other characters). The editing, I have to say, really is bad, and it made me think that the villain was actually the hero. It was very hard to build any ground with either of the characters.
Yet, despite the poor editing and packaging, I have to admit, the action scenes really make up for it. They make up for just about EVERYTHING wrong with this movie. In essence, its a classic showdown between two ninjas, the good student and bad student, with a love interest thrown in the mix. Cliche plot, but what I think they really pulled off is that these are ninjas in modern times. They've got a sleek Mortal Kombat feel with the villain's being this awesome futuristic ninja with night vision goggles, trench coat, and pistols, and the hero being a more traditional ninja with a huge arsenal of ninja weapons.
I loved the action scenes in this movie. You can really tell they put a lot of effort into making them have a large impact, while still on a limited budget. There's a lot of slow motion and fluid blood, so not only is it well performed, but it's got a lot of style to it. I friggin' love Ihara's scenes. It's pretty much what you'd expect from a ninja. Silhouette from the darkness appears, and just massacres everyone that can go on the "screen". I say "screen" because you can easily tell that the majority of the footage shot was intended to give a video game-esque feel to it. Very cool.
I took this movie quite personally, only because not only do I love ninja movies, but this one really had a sense of originality. Yeah, you can argue that the plot was garbage, but hey, I think it had a better plot than most tokusatsu out there anyway. It is definitely a refresher to the old school ninja movies, while throwing a modern twist to it.
All of the action scenes are very satisfying, but each and every one of them are addressed in the trailer anyway. The very last battle was really epic. Adkin's character stops at nothing to use every bit of his ninja arsenal, flipping between caltrops to ninja stars to kama. And I cannot stress enough how awesome Ihara's futuristic ninja suit is.
All in all, I have to say, I would highly recommend it... to a select few. Yeah, the majority of you all will probably hate it only because you've probably seen better, but if you're looking for a more modern ninja movie that is a little more original and exciting than most, I'd say at least give it a rent.
