Ninja Assassin

…had more problems than Moses caused for the Pharaoh.
I'd like to start this off by saying that this movie was a lot of fun, especially because of the group I saw it with. See it at some point in your life, preferably at a time when you want to laugh at something for being ridiculous while simultaneously increasing your heart rate to quasi-dangerous levels. I just hope you don't pay to see it. A rental, maybe…otherwise no, not worth it. Moving on- let's commence the beat down.
This movie is full of paradoxes. While in premise, it is not a serious movie at all, it finds itself getting surprisingly serious and overly emotional at times, usually at a "lull" in the action. Problem number one right there; we don't want lulls in action. As movie goers in this kind of movie, we want a small amount of development and backstory, and after that it's all about action and small periods of traveling from one bit of action to the next. Ninja assassin chose to look at the backstory at intervals, revealing small amounts at a time, which makes for a better storytelling mechanic in general, but the execution of this mechanic was too poor to warrant its use. The backstory should have been told completely in the first third of the movie or so, small gaps permitted, but it should not have been a sideshow throughout the majority of the movie.
And what's worst about the backstory is the guilt-trip it takes us on, forcing us to find emotion in the main character and sympathize rather than building it properly. In the early 2009 movie, Taken, our hero's motivation is given in a relatively real and dramatic fashion, without too much downtime, and with intermittent action to spice things up. What's more, the characters are given personalities and traits by the simplest of actions (i.e. ex-wife's and step-dad's behavior at his daughter's birthday party, or his group of friends having dinner). Ninja Assassin, on the other hand, merely shows physical pain of his past, through scenes of sparring and training, accompanied by the obligatory girl character/love interest. Actually, that's not fair; occasionally, we get a scene about just her, too! We get no character, no motivation, until we learn that his pseudo-girlfriend wanted to leave and ran away from this ninja orphan training camp/murder factory and, omg SHOCK, kissed him. Then she gets caught and stabbed and the guy we have to hate in the movie smiles.
Now I understand the appeal of this movie and the necessity of character motivation. I admitted I enjoyed it; I got to laugh and experience killing effects and visuals of the highest caliber (in some cases). But having the storytelling fall flat in such a way detracts from everything good about the movie. It IS POSSIBLE to have a story without letting it get in the way. You can give a character a personality without plastering cliches on the screen. (And the acting certainly didn't help. "Her heart is speciar…"? COME ON). And you can make the audience relate to that without milking emotions with overblown tragedy.
That said, this movie did have some strengths. Visuals were quite impressive, with creative and stimulating use of CG for ninja effects and weapons. The shadow step/vanishing effects were especially awesome. Problem though: the camera looked at times like it was operated by the guy who shot The Bourne Supremacy distracted by something slightly off screen; more on that later. The choreography of the fight scenes was beyond superb, and the details that went into developing the hero's badass persona were very well done (on the whole). But…
Technical problems abound. Writing was awful or a step above throughout (see heart = speciar), acting was never believable or serious enough for what this movie decided to do, and the dialogue was always delivered like one side of the conversation was half asleep. And even the all powerful fight scenes had an achilles' heel in the camerawork; I often found myself in the middle of action nothing short of epic, but I couldn't see a damn thing. At that point, you just have to assume based on principal that the character delivered a hideous blow matching the carnage the resulted from it. When I see an movie, I want to be shown something, not hints at it from which I have to paint a mental picture. Off-screen or out-of-focus action does not count! Guh…
The bottom line is that the movie is terrible, but enjoyable. It's the male version of twilight- something so ridiculous and wrong that only those enchanted by its silly, fantastical charm will bother to sit through it. And sometimes they come out surprised…not this time. Fun factor is a 3.5 to 4 out of 5, depending on how much you like ninjas vs. standard killing machines.
Overall Score: 1 out of 5

A History of Violence

"In this family, we do not solve problems by hitting people!" "No, in this family, we shoot them!"
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't find Viggo Mortensen to be an utter BAMF; roles such as Aragorn in the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy and the quiet Russian mobster Nikolai in Eastern Promises give us no other option but to think so. But the opening of this movie would have you think otherwise.
As it starts, we find Viggo as Tom Stall, the tender, loving father of two and kind husband to his lovely wife, played by Maria Bello. They reside in a picturesque, albeit simple looking town in Indiana, inhabited by pleasant people, who know everyone else by name, and exchange jokes and stories as they go about their days. Through these images, we come across the movie's first major strength: setting a tone. But I'm getting ahead of myself; allow me to backtrack a bit.
The actual movie's opening, while taking a bit of time to develop, sets a tone of extreme, wanton violence in sharp contrast to the following scenes with our hero, Tom Stall. The transition between these two diametrically opposed ideas takes the form of Stall's daughter waking up from a nightmare. This leaves us to wonder whether or not the gruesome events that introduced the film were all just a terrifying dream of the awful things that might happen in this world. This possibility is denied in a timely fashion, but not before showing further development of the family characters. And the movie's second strength, pacing, makes itself apparent. Some would disagree with me on this, but I'll get into that discussion at the end.
The calm of the movie is broken both slowly and then all at once as an Tom foils an attempted robbery, getting his foot stabbed in the process. A hero, Tom is welcomed back from the hospital by praise from his friends and unnecessary media attention. With his picture on news channels everywhere, a few people recognize him and decide to pay a visit.
As characters from Tom's past begin to rear their ugly (scarred) faces, we begin to question how well these he represents the wholesome family man he was made out to be. Or, we tend to question how much of his story is truth vs. the stories told by the outsiders. The final question, why is "Tom" so good at killing people, sets the ball rolling on the second half of the movie, which dives head first into that past that is both terrifying and captivating. He has to face his past, while trying to keep his family from being dragged into it. The second of these two garners mixed results; as for confronting his past- it more confronts him in the end. But I'll let you see it rather than explain.
Now, about the pacing and technical aspects. Sure, at times the movement seems slow (from a cynic's point of view), but to call that unnecessary is going too far. The movie is very much about a progression, a steady revelation of the truth about Tom Stall's past and the measures he took to leave it behind. While occasionally a tad overdramatic in scenes concerning the high school students' competition over alpha badass standing, the overall feel is consistently set appropriately and with a well-practiced hand. The lighting offers to alter or otherwise enhance the feeling of each scene. Camerawork is decent with some impressive timing and shots, but it is mostly simple fixed camera; composition is the only thing that sets it apart. I would say that the main drawback is the acting performances from some of the side roles, especially that of Stall's daughter. The technical details remain this way throughout the movie, changing as our opinion does.
Ultimately, this movie has a solid premise, well above average execution, and a great balance between heart-pounding action (short-lived, but worth), and dramatic dialogue. Some of the acting detracts from the otherwise consistent feel, and the development at the beginning seems slow at times, but the overall package is well worth it. In the end, I tip my hat to Vigo for another impressive performance.
Overall score: 4 out of 5

GOS's Grand Opening

I, William Wallace Blakely III, welcome you.
Hey there.
For those of you that don't know me, read on. For those that do, some may be redundant, and you may not care, but read on nonetheless. Nobody cares what you think anyway... On to the relevant portion-
*ahem* I spend, on average, more time than I ever should watching movies. And after watching them, more often than not, I explain my opinion of them. Only it always sounds more fact-based than opinion-based; this is something to work on. The point I'm trying to get at is that I claim to have a lot of insight to offer into the awe-inspiring, mind-bending, reality-altering, and simply entertaining world that is cinema. In order to get all of those ideas off my chest and hopefully help people understand more about the movie along the way, I will talk about all that here.
Now then, as the name of the blog suggests, everything I say should be taken with a grain of salt. That is to say that I am stating my opinion here, not fact, and you may challenge me on that in search of stimulating intellectual debate, but don't try and tell me I'm wrong about an opinion. And I'll extend the same courtesy to you. Oh, and the same goes for getting offended or otherwise angry at what I'm saying; it's my opinion, and I'm just expressing it. No one is asking you to read, nor telling you to like it. I am suggesting you take this into consideration. with a grain of salt.