After loving Speed Racer, being a medium sized Wachowski brothers fans and being a big fan of ninja and action movies, I figured Ninja Assassin would be a home run for me.It turns out that the Wachowski brothers only produced the movie instead of writing or directing it. Matthew Sand wrote the original draft  with comic writer J. Michael Straczynski and directing by James McTeigue who also directed V For Vendetta. What do the Wachowskiw’s actually do anymore? Well, I don’t really care because I loved this movie. It’s kind of like the ninja version of Speed Racer when you think about it. The players took a familiar concept (a ninja clan trying to track down the best of their number who forsook their evil ways) and re-presenting it using modern technology which helps tell the story and doesn’t just act as a crutch.

See, with Ninja Assassin, the effects are used to really bloody this movie up and take out limbs. The fight scenes reminded me of the Crazy 88 fight in Kill Bill, but not in a rip-off kind of way. We’re talking big huge fights with one man taking on incredibly skilled opponents. Instead of spraying like it does in Kill Bill, though the blood actually kind of splashes out. It’s super cool looking.

The plot’s pretty basic, as I already mentioned, with the addition of tons of flashbacks showing why the main guy left the ninja clan and the inclusion of some cops who are befuddled by the fact that they’re trying to go after honest to goodness ninja.

One thing that did kind of bother me while I was watching the movie, though was the way it was put together. Like I said, it’s mostly told with flashes between past and present. Like with The Men Who Stare At Goats, the problem comes from one story not being quite as interesting as the other. It wasn’t as bad with Ninja Assassin because, soon enough, both stories got interesting. I will be honest, though, I was really just waiting for the next fight scene. Action porn at its best. The flashback stuff ended up being pretty cool when the present day cop stuff didn’t catch my interest, so it balances out.

I wholeheartedly recommend this movie for action movie fans. I don’t think there’s much you’ll dislike, except, possibly the lack of blood and fighting in every single second of screentime, but they had to put that boring old plot in for the ladies.