I did think there was too much gore. i'm not a fan of gore for gore's sake. Do ninjas realy need to cut of so many arms and legs. It worked with Kill Bill, but not with pin point accurate secret assasssins whome no one believes in becasue there is no evidence..other trhen the room full of guys choped up with swords and pinned to the wall with ninja stars.

This movie was the first of it's kind in terms of how James McTeigue's ultra-violent theme (similar to HOSTEL and SAW) explodes and how he treats his ninja like monsters. The brutality and gore took off with heads rolling, torsos getting severed, faces being sliced like apples and geysers of blood spurts to add in the mix. Their introduction where the ninja slaughter their enemies one by one looked sort of how the Xenomorphs killed their prey in ALIENS and how Neon killed in THE PROFESSIONAL.

As a huge fan of action choreography, the swordplay and other fight designs in this film were crafted beautifully. It allowed Rain to use his main weapon, the knife-chain in the form of the Jouhyou “or rope-dart”, where he twines and shoots it in different directions from long. The cinematography captured these sequences nicely and it relied on slick camera moves and slow-motion scenes in the style of THE MATRIX.

Compared to the martial arts/weaponry training Keanu received for six months, the stunt/fight choreographers only showed Rain a routine twice and he pulled off the moves extraordinary. Like you said Mark that was commitment and skill because you don't find singers with no combat training turning into screen fighters with that level of commitment. I'll put him in the category with Donnie Yen and Jet Li.

The fights were set in dark areas and they got a little claustrophobic and couldn’t see everything that's going on but I think that was the idea for the ninja since they are supposed to be mysterious to judge the situation of the enemy. They use methods on their enemies to discover gaps, and enter enemy territories with carried out assassinations, arriving in secret so that would make some sense for them tom use the dark to arrive in secret.

An overhead shot would've been a great addition to the traffic battle scene (as it was for Jackie Chan in WHO AM I in one sequence) to you could see more of what was going on and what Rain was doing but maybe they didn't have enough time to shoot them that way some of the usual press-for-time issues came in the way as the last minute.

You seem like you have the proper tools to be a filmmaker Mark because you do have creative ideas.

Directed and written by Mark Pollard ladies and gentlemen. LOL

I also agree with you on the RAMBO part because James McTigue's ultra-violent style of ninja dismembering their enemies, teleporting, using superhuman speed and throwing rapid hira-shurikens like bullets from a gun would be a perfect crossover and challenge for RAMBO with the right script written by the right people and a director who has a visual style to pull it off.

A jungle set up for these McTeigue's breed of ninja would be an interesting showdown with Sly's heroic former Green beret legend from the '80s.

Maybe Sly himself could do it since he has shown that he can shoot and has his own take on action movies, resulting from 2008's RAMBO. That would be an entertaining piece of work if someone was to pull it off because I'm trying to ignore the early drafts of the fifth movie. LOL

I was very disappointed with the first week numbers at the box office but of course they would release NINJA ASSASSIN during the hype of NEW MOON and 2012. I believe if they would've released the film earlier or waited for that hype to wear down, maybe the movie wouldn't have received verbal hira-shuriken attacks by critics. Sometimes, I think that's a set up for box office failures of good movies, given the fact that the cast were relatively unknown

I know Sho Kosugi from my '80s childhood days when REVENGE OF THE NINJA, NINJA III: THE DOMINATION and PRAY FOR DEATH was dominating the cinemas. It was a surprise to see him return after his long hiatus from movies and I do hope this movie will re-introduce him to the new generation of fans and they will go back and check out his classic ninja flicks.

Well, I've said enough- in closing, despite the flaws and negative reviews from critics, NINJA ASSASSIN was a good movie from an entertaining standpoint and the film served its purpose; it was truly a masterpiece and I think the doors can possibly open for a sequel.