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Ninja Assassin Blu-ray Disc Review

By brenden ⋅ March 13, 2010 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

NINJA ASSASSIN (2009, Blu-ray released March 16, 2010 - MSRP $35.99)

For everything that Ninja Assassin does right it manages to get a couple of things wrong. That’s not to say I didn’t have a good time watching it. It’s super fun, filled with ridiculous, gory-grindhouse martial arts action and stars Sho Kusugi as the evil ninja master! Sho Kusugi fer chrissakes!!

Okay, maybe you don’t know who Sho Kusugi is and why I’m so excited to see him here, kicking ass and taking names. Well, when I was growing up in the 80s, he was well known as the most bad-ass, real-life ninja on the whole planet! He’s almost single-handedly responsible for the ninja craze of the decade, starring in such films as Enter the Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja and Pray for Death. I can’t tell you how surprised and delighted I was to see his return to awesomeness in Ninja Assassin. It was clearly the best casting choice that director James McTeigue and producers, the Wachowski siblings could have made for the role. And speaking of casting, they could’ve done a lot worse than Korean pop-star Rain for the lead character, Raizo.

Rain is incredible. If you watch the film and aren’t impressed with his martial arts skill and gymnastic ability, just take a peek at the special feature that details his training. All this guy did before Ninja Assassin was appear in a couple of films and perform as a song and dance man. You wouldn’t know it from his performance here. He uses every weapon under the sun, lands a flying roundhouse kick like a pro and leaps from wall to wall better than most parkour masters. Like I said, Rain is incredible!

As amazing and talented as the stars of the film are, they can’t completely save it from its faults. The story is weak and yet, convoluted. It tries to be plot heavy, assuming we’re interested in piecing together the puzzle of why Europol wants to uncover and bring down a cabal of secret ninja clans. But I, for one, couldn’t care less. Every time the film cuts away from Raizo and his story it loses steam. In fact, motivation of the non-ninja characters and the plot details they constantly blather on about are contradictory at the best of times. Or Maybe it’s just me. Perhaps I was having difficulty paying attention to or caring about anyone who wasn’t holding a katana or throwing a shuriken…

The action is top notch, so much so that it almost makes suffering through the plot contrivances a worthwhile endeavour. Shadows literally leak a multitude of deadly, hooded warriors. Flocks of ninja stars streak the screen, anime-style, speed lines and all. And bullet time is in full effect in every hand-to-hand sequence, recalling the films Matrix-heritage. If the over the top violence, proclivity for gory grindhouse visuals and nonsensical plot line don’t turn you off, you might have a great time with Ninja Assassin.

Ninja Assassin comes to Blu-ray in a striking transfer and encode. Outside of the action, the cinematography is the best thing going here and the discs representation is accurate and doesn’t disappoint. There isn’t a hint of banding, noise reduction or edge enhancement to be found. Ninja Assassin looks great! And as brilliant and the video presentation is, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is even better, if you can believe it. Prepare for your surround speakers to get a workout as the sound design takes advantage of every passing car, every sword-swipe and karate blow.

The special features are few but quite nice, the finest of which is the excellent 20-minute “The Myth and Legend of Ninjas“. It’s heavy on Kusugi and clips from old films (and, strangely, Batman cartoons) and makes me quite anxious to see other ninja fare in 1080p! A couple of fine 10-minute featurettes touch on Rain’s transformation from singer to ripped, agile killing machine along with some of the amazing stunts on display in the film. The disc is rounded out with a collection of deleted scenes and a preview for the remake of Clash of the Titans.

Tags: Andy Wachowski, J. Michael Straczynski, James McTeigue, Lana Wachowski, Larry Wachowski, Naomie Harris, Rain, The Wachowski Brothers, Warner, Warner Home Video