Viewed in
2011
Formats
DVD
Premise
A ninja escapes with a baby (last survivor of his rival clan) to America's Wild Wild West.
Liked
The stylish action.
Disliked
The who's who of cliches.
Thoughts
Pretty much what you'd expect out of a ninja-cowboy flick.
The action and visual style was fun. You can sense The Matrix's lingering impact with all the rotoscoping and CGI, enabling the camera to manipulate time and space during the action sequences. There was also quite a bit of wire-work and real stunts such that it didn't look too much like a video game. Though I cannot say the same regarding the re-spawning rate of the ninjas/bandits during the climax.
I was rather surprised by the eclectic cast, including Kate Bosworth doing her darndest with that cowgirl accent, and Geoffrey Rush(!?) as the town drunk. South Korean Dong-gun Jang was fine as the taciturn ninja. Thankfully his English was understandable. And there was a cute baby.
While the mash-up of western and ninja genres was interesting, you unfortunately also end up with a double helping, nay heaping, of cliches. Everything from plucky girls to silent brooding assassins to bandit posses to obligatory training sequences were present. At least the movie stopped to recognize the dead after an epic blood-bath.
Once I set my brain on autopilot, The Warrior's Way was quite sufficient in action and flair to keep me entertained.
What I would change
Write a more creative story.
