Ninja Assassin (2009)

Featured Audience Ratings

• John M

  
  An interesting action flick with a throw back to all the ninja movies of the past. Awesome slick stylized fight scenes with lots of blood shed and tons of great ninja stuff. Automatic ninja stars for the win.

• moon r

  
  Lots and lotsa fight scenes (with lotsa them in the dark so's you can't see nothing) and lots and lotsa blood, lots of it, buckets and buckets, body parts flooding in blood, blood, blood, blood, and some dialogue on the side. The only movie I ever saw made for vampires and… More
  Lots and lotsa fight scenes (with lotsa them in the dark so's you can't see nothing) and lots and lotsa blood, lots of it, buckets and buckets, body parts flooding in blood, blood, blood, blood, and some dialogue on the side. The only movie I ever saw made for vampires and not about them (like a sort of Vampire Food Network). Of course I realize that some may find what I said to be attractive. To them I add: "You'll be sorry."

• xGary X

  
  A ninja who has turned his back on his clan fights to defend an Interpol researcher who is trying to uncover them and seek revenge upon his erstwhile master. No-one has the right to complain about the lack of depth or characterisation in this film. It's called Ninja Assassin for… More
  A ninja who has turned his back on his clan fights to defend an Interpol researcher who is trying to uncover them and seek revenge upon his erstwhile master. No-one has the right to complain about the lack of depth or characterisation in this film. It's called Ninja Assassin for christ's sake. Essentially it's a mish-mash of ideas that are just an excuse for wildly over the top action sequences in which bad guys are sliced, diced and eviscerated left, right and centre; it has the "gangsters fighting against an invisible assassin" format of the Predator films, the "come with me if you want to live" character dynamic of The Terminator and the soldiers vs afore-mentioned invisible assassins finale that's straight out of Aliens. But unlike Doomsday which managed to completely balls up this mix of "influences", Ninja Assassin sticks to what it knows and presents a non-stop frenetic gorefest that's actually a lot of fun. The result reminded me of a Wachowski-fied version of Blade that's a bit thin on plot but makes up for it with above par effects and finely executed action. In fact the bad guys are very much in the vein of The Hand from the Wolverine comics and I would have been a lot happier if the Wolverine film had been handled in a similar way. Switch brain to neutral and enjoy.

• Brad W

  
  Ninja Assassin is based 100% on pure blood and gore, some people may like that, but not me. The actors were only there for the gore, the action was there only for the gore, everything is there for the gore. Its hard to believe a great movie like V for Vendetta was directed by the… More
  Ninja Assassin is based 100% on pure blood and gore, some people may like that, but not me. The actors were only there for the gore, the action was there only for the gore, everything is there for the gore. Its hard to believe a great movie like V for Vendetta was directed by the same guy as this.

• Marc L

  
  You know, in all honesty, i like this movie. I like the character development, I loved the acting, I like the fight choreography, I thought it was a good movie. However, there were quite a few things that I didn't like. I'll start with the negative. First of all, if… More
  You know, in all honesty, i like this movie. I like the character development, I loved the acting, I like the fight choreography, I thought it was a good movie. However, there were quite a few things that I didn't like. I'll start with the negative. First of all, if someone tells you this movie is really bloody, they are absolutely right. I didn't like the excessive amount of blood and gore, and it remains the only movie where I almost threw up. This is the bloodiest and most disturbing movie I have seen or ever will see. Be warned that if you see this movie, you will see ripped out internal organs, bloody decapitations and God knows what else. It is absolutely NOT for everyone Also I felt the movie didn't give us enough background information. Even at the end, there's a lot of stuff we don't know. What was Raizo like before he was kidnapped as a child? What is Lord Ozunu's backstory? What did the remaining ninja clans do at the end? What is Aleksei Sabatin's backstory? We never get answers. As much negative as there is, there is also plenty of positive. First of all, the acting was amazing, some of the best I've seen from a below 50% movie. Rain, Naomi Harris and Sho Kosugi were especially good, doing a very realistic job. The characters are also very developed too. Raizo is a complicated character. At first glance, he seems cruel and cold, but as we know him better, we realize that he actually has a kind and sensitive side. The fight choreography was amazing. It looked less like it was fake and more like a real fight. It was all so fast paced and harsh. The fight scene in the apartment is one of the best sword fights I've ever seen. Over all, for all this movies faults I enjoyed it. It's definitley not a movie you would want to show your date, and definatley not a movie you want to show your children, but it's still alright. It's not perfect, but it's fun and well acted, all that the story demands really.

• Manu G

  
  Good Movie. Action was superb more than I actually needed to see but well that's what the movie was about killing and betrayal. Bloody so watch out parents don't watch it with your kids. Raizo (Rain) is raised by the Ozunu Clan to become one of the most lethal Special Ops… More
  Good Movie. Action was superb more than I actually needed to see but well that's what the movie was about killing and betrayal. Bloody so watch out parents don't watch it with your kids. Raizo (Rain) is raised by the Ozunu Clan to become one of the most lethal Special Ops ninja assassins in the world. As a child, Raizo experiences severe training under the guidance of his "father", Lord Ozunu (Sho Kosugi): he is whipped and/or cut whenever he fails and is encouraged to hurt his ninja kin for their training failures. The only kindness he ever receives is from a kunoichi (female ninja), Kiriko (Anna Sawai). As they grow older, Kiriko and Raizo develop a romantic bond, however Kiriko's desire to leave the Ozunu Clan for freedom is greater. One stormy night, Kiriko decides to escape from the clan. She encourages Raizo to join her, but he decides to stay. They kiss and she then climbs over the wall to freedom; only to be caught and brought back by her ninja kin. Branded as a traitor, Kiriko is executed (a katana through her heart) by her elder ninja brother Takeshi (Rick Yune). As a result of Kiriko's death, Raizo begins to harbor resentment and doubt towards the clan. After completing his first assassination, Raizo is instructed by Lord Ozunu to execute an escaped kunoichi like Kiriko. He rebels against his master by slashing his face with a kyoketsu shoge and fights against his ninja kin. Barely surviving, he escapes by falling into a nearby river. Raizo recovers and begins to intervene in Ozunu hits by foiling their attempts. While staying in Berlin and waiting for Ozunu's next move, Raizo rents a small apartment where he secretly continues to refine his training until it is time to act. Meanwhile, Europol agent Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) has been investigating money linked to political murders and finds that it is potentially linked to the Ozunu Clan. She defies her superior, Ryan Maslow (Ben Miles), and retrieves secret agency files to find out more. The clan, finding out about the investigation, attempts to assassinate her but she is rescued by Raizo. Mika convinces Raizo to meet with Maslow for protection and to provide evidence against the ninja clan, but Raizo is intercepted by a task force for interrogation. Mika feels betrayed that Maslow would trick her that way, but Maslow secretly assures Mika that he is still on her side and gives her a tracking device for emergencies. While Mika warns Maslow of the dangers of keeping Raizo, the Ozunu ninja infiltrate their secret base and slaughter all the officers. Mika frees Raizo and he lures the ninja away as Mika tries to escape. Raizo kills and fends off as many ninja as he can while Takeshi continues to trail him. He and Mika manage to escape but Raizo suffers mortal wounds around his stomach. Resting in a private area, Mika implants the tracking device into Raizo. Unable to fend against the clan, she hides outside the hotel until special forces arrive to help her. By that time, the ninja have recovered Raizo and taken him back to their base, bringing him before Lord Ozunu for prosecution. While hidden inside a steel locker Raizo uses his healing techniques to heal all major injuries before being reunited with his "father." Lord Ozunu decides to have Raizo executed as an example but is infuriated by Raizo's defiance to the end; Ozunu strikes against Raizo's internal organs, causing him to spit out the tracking device. Europol Special Forces Counter-Terrorism tactical teams lead by Maslow storm the hidden Ozunu base and kill most of the ninja in the court yard. Takeshi and Raizo face each other in the burning Ozunu training hall. Raizo slays Takeshi and confronts Lord Ozunu in a sword duel. While Ozuno initially has the upper hand, Mika, fearing for Raizo's life, distracts and shoots Ozunu with her pistol. Before Raizo can recover, Lord Ozunu stabs Mika in the heart. Emotionally ravaged, Raizo uses the 'shadow blending' technique for the first time and finishes off Ozunu. Mika, seemingly fatally wounded, is in fact saved by a quirk of birth: her heart is on the opposite side of her chest. Mika and Europol leave the destroyed Ozunu compound while Raizo stays behind. Symbolically, he climbs the same wall Kiriko did all those years ago and looks out at the surrounding countryside. Recognizing his freedom for the first time in years, Raizo smiles, ending the film.

• Matt G

  
  Not good, the action sequences are entertaining, sure. But this is just a terrible movie. Grade: D-

• Dean !

  
  An all out exercise for the eye-balls! This is a very violent, extremely bloody/gory martial arts film. I think they must use the same techniques used by Asian cinema with almost fountains of blood with every slice and dice of a Ninja sword. Revenge is the plot, of course....way over… More
  An all out exercise for the eye-balls! This is a very violent, extremely bloody/gory martial arts film. I think they must use the same techniques used by Asian cinema with almost fountains of blood with every slice and dice of a Ninja sword. Revenge is the plot, of course....way over the top, humanely impossible action scenes, some cool effects and some great fights. It makes Kill Bill look tame in comparison.

• Jason S

  
  While this is a pretty over the top movie in regards to the action it's still really entertaining and has a surprisingly good story hidden inside all the CGI blood. It unfolds as you would expect but I was still having fun watching it. They did a good job not taking themselves… More
  While this is a pretty over the top movie in regards to the action it's still really entertaining and has a surprisingly good story hidden inside all the CGI blood. It unfolds as you would expect but I was still having fun watching it. They did a good job not taking themselves too seriously with the content and it works. I would easily watch a sequel to this flick.

• Cynthia S

  
  HOLY CRAP!!! This was friggin awesome!! I am going to have to add this to my top ten all time favorite action flics. The camera work was amazing! The action scenes were even more amazing! This Rain guy just blew me away! Loved it!!

• Richard C

  
  I didn't know what to expect with a movie like this. I actually liked it though. Yes, this movie doesn't have a good story or that good acting. I also agree that this movie is stupid and people aren't wrong with the criticism's about the movie. This movie has a lot… More
  I didn't know what to expect with a movie like this. I actually liked it though. Yes, this movie doesn't have a good story or that good acting. I also agree that this movie is stupid and people aren't wrong with the criticism's about the movie. This movie has a lot of problems but I still liked it. I liked that they went completely over the top with the violence and gore. The people involved with this knew that this had a bad story but they probably said, fuck it, just go all out with the action and put gallons amount of gore in the movie and people will be entertained. This is not a good movie but I was entertained, probably because of the non-stop action and the fast pacing of the movie, your not really thinking about anything else but the fight scenes. I can completely see why somebody wouldn't like this movie, but I was entertained. Grade: B-

• Ginny  

  
  I feel bad giving this a rating of 2 1/2 stars since I dont think it to be that horrible. The sadist in me actually liked a good number of scenes in this movie, but over-all I'd say its only good for a rental (for those who actually likes gory violent films.) A bit… More
  I feel bad giving this a rating of 2 1/2 stars since I dont think it to be that horrible. The sadist in me actually liked a good number of scenes in this movie, but over-all I'd say its only good for a rental (for those who actually likes gory violent films.) A bit disappointing coming from McTeigue, I would have expected something that had a more mature storyline. From someone who directed V for Vendetta this was weak. He only managed to please my sadist side but it gets a very low score in terms of... ninja common sense.

• KJ P

  
  Ninja Assassin does not disappoint on the action scenes, but it does become repetitive. If you are wanting to watch a film with story, you can forget it, because this film has the furthest thing from a real story. It's brutal and it has laughable dialogue, but it was far too… More
  Ninja Assassin does not disappoint on the action scenes, but it does become repetitive. If you are wanting to watch a film with story, you can forget it, because this film has the furthest thing from a real story. It's brutal and it has laughable dialogue, but it was far too average!

• Al S

  
  This movie is sooo sooo bad couldn't watch the whole thing. It was unbearable, like i enjoy my smart action movies and i even like my senseless violent action movies but this is not a smart film but it is incredibly senseless and brutally awful. Theirs so much bloody action in… More
  This movie is sooo sooo bad couldn't watch the whole thing. It was unbearable, like i enjoy my smart action movies and i even like my senseless violent action movies but this is not a smart film but it is incredibly senseless and brutally awful. Theirs so much bloody action in the first six minutes of this film that it just can be taken seriously or looked at in a realistic point of view. Im just glad i didn't pay money to watch this waste of time.

• Crash E

  
  yeah , very inconsistent fight scenes and weak acting all around

• Michael S

  
  A bloody mess of a film. Terrible plot and script, (very) weak acting all around, horrendous pacing, and very inconsistent fight scenes (sometimes violence is WAY beyond the realms of over - the- top, and then it gets disturbing and tries to shock). The only redeeming factor for… More
  A bloody mess of a film. Terrible plot and script, (very) weak acting all around, horrendous pacing, and very inconsistent fight scenes (sometimes violence is WAY beyond the realms of over - the- top, and then it gets disturbing and tries to shock). The only redeeming factor for some will be the truckloads of blood the film has to offer, but even that sentiment wears very thin when the rest of the film is just so boring, generic, and clumsy. If you want blood, hop on a bike, jump off, and skin your knees; that will be more entertaining and gratifying than sitting through NINJA ASSASSIN!

• Dean M

  
  What a fast-paced action movie about merciless assassins "painting the town red" with tons of extreme martial arts violence and gallons of blood. I figured it out the solution of this film title is Raizo, played by South Korean singer Rain, who is a member of the clan of… More
  What a fast-paced action movie about merciless assassins "painting the town red" with tons of extreme martial arts violence and gallons of blood. I figured it out the solution of this film title is Raizo, played by South Korean singer Rain, who is a member of the clan of assassins known as the Ozunu, a secret society whose very existence is considered to be a myth, is not hired to assassin any innocent people, only to protect them and going forward to assassin his former clan of ninjas. Really interesting what I excepted to know. The fight choreography was fantastic with a good mix of slow motion and frantic close-ups. Special effects and CGI are used to effectively give the movie a very comic book-like feel. And the cinematography was beautiful. The last fight scenes have to be my favorite out of any action/martial arts film and had me in awesome. The lead actor, Rain, does a good job and the overall storyline was fairly well written.

• Phil H

  
  So you might wanna brace yourself for the opening sequence haha I had no idea what was coming and boy was it a surprise. This is by far the bloodiest film I've seen in some time, on one hand it was ultra cool but on the other it was also really stupid in places. The action is… More
  So you might wanna brace yourself for the opening sequence haha I had no idea what was coming and boy was it a surprise. This is by far the bloodiest film I've seen in some time, on one hand it was ultra cool but on the other it was also really stupid in places. The action is excellent and really really well performed but it goes way way over the top which makes it drop from ice cool to drippy lame hehe the endless supply of ninja assassins that fight in the big escape battle sequence really spoils a good brawl and ruins a possible decent realistic ninja clan flick. This problem also shows how silly the whole idea is, all the ninja are suppose to be top fighters/killers but the hero kills them all as if they were a bunch of beginners (a common action flick prob with endless henchmen on hand). The story is unoriginal but still alluring with nice flashbacks and a nice history for the characters, this could of been a really cool, bloody sensible film but they went too Hollywood. There is also some obvious Aliens and Predator 2 ripping going on, the big battle between armed police and the ninja clan is great fun but really borrows from the two films and certain classic action sequences within, the ninja are almost made out to be aliens or creatures, the music is pretty similar too. Overall this is a fun flick and I loved the truthful approach to ninja and their look/surroundings/skills etc.. but they just went too 'Transporter' with everything when they could of been more 'Last Samurai' which would of been really interesting. The blood is also too red, paint looking and gushes too much ;)

• Chris W

  
  The extra half star on the rating is some extra points for style. This movie offers up two intersecting stories, neither one of them new, but with slight (very slight) variatins to them, which keep the movie from being a total rehash of the past, but it still isn't that great of… More
  The extra half star on the rating is some extra points for style. This movie offers up two intersecting stories, neither one of them new, but with slight (very slight) variatins to them, which keep the movie from being a total rehash of the past, but it still isn't that great of a movie. Yeah, I was entertained, but I expected more, and expected it to be done better. This film ranks very high as one of the bloodiest films I've ever seen, but a majority of the blood is CGI which is silly. That at least keeps the film from being NC-17 at least. There is also a ton of action, but many of the fight scenes are darkly lit and feature very choppy editing, making things hard to see and incoherent. Rain's performance is decent, and the apearance by Naomie Harris gives the film some weight and keeps things from being totally mindless, mainly because she actually has chops, but they could have used her more, or at least better. I didn't mind that there's not so much plot, I just with the writing could have been better. So yeah, this movie is a mess (in more ways than one), but I never got bored. If you have nothing else to do, and you put this movie on, you'll probaby be at least a little satisfied in some way, shape or form.

• Nate Z

  
  I never would have fathomed that a movie with both "ninja" and "assassin" in its title would barely hold my interest. This is a movie I got up and did the dishes through. Over-the-top never felt so boring, and perhaps it comes down to the flimsiest of stories… More
  I never would have fathomed that a movie with both "ninja" and "assassin" in its title would barely hold my interest. This is a movie I got up and did the dishes through. Over-the-top never felt so boring, and perhaps it comes down to the flimsiest of stories strung together to connect the various ninja fights. It really does the bare minimum narrative-wise to get to the next opportunity for bloodletting, and oh what bloodletting! This is an extremely bloody movie but its power is undone because the violence is too stylized. Blood sprays like geysers and every slash of the flesh unleashes a balletic dance of painterly, soupy blood. The movie might work as disposable trash if only the action sequences were exciting. This isn't a ninja movie but some half-assed video game. These aren't Bruce Lee Ninjas, these ninjas can literally vanish into thin air before your eyes and they blend into the shadows. They are supernatural creatures that defy our traditional notions of what defines a ninja. This ain't it. The characters all take such brutal beatings, and they spill tanker truckloads of blood, that it's a wonder they can even stand let alone fight. There are a fee snazzy fight sequences but only thanks to choice in geography. The choppy editing only makes matters worse. I expected much more from the director of V for Vendetta. Ninja Assassin is just an unengaging, hyper violent cartoon with a dimwitted story and little reason to care. The action isn't even that good because the editing and lighting conspire to make sure you won't be able to comprehend what's going on. The best part of this entire damn stupid movie is the animated segment at the start of the closing credits. So have fun washing dishes until then, folks. Nate's Grade: C-

Read all 20 featured audience ratings