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Jet Lag: 2 Reviews Of "The One"
These last few years have been good for lovers of martial arts movies, until recently a fringe cinematic genre, and for a new generation of stars like Jet Li. But The One (even the title is a ripoff from The Matrix) will bore even die-hard teen lovers of the form. It's slow, dull and humorless. Maybe it's time for this era to end. Jackie Chan does it a lot better, and with a lot more personality. John Wayne did the square-jaw resolute look a lot better. Li just looks ticked off all the time.
In this movie, the exotic and surprising spirituality of The Matrix is reduced to much incomprehensible gibberish about parallel universes --- the "multiverse" and the efforts of parallel figures -- in this case the two Jet Li's -- to seize control of all the different dimensions and become God of us all. Even the good Jet Li, who plays an LA County Sheriff and family man who is just doing his job and hanging around with his muscle-head buddies, and wants no part of this multi-universe politicking, doesn't exactly exude warmth. The bad Jet Li -- a monster from the parallel dimensions who transports himself through dimensions killing off competitors and look-alikes and agents from Galactic Central -- just glowers a bit more. Watching these Jet Li's square off in a noisy environment of Delta-force clad LAPD officers blasting away in their dark suits and racing unsuccessfully back and forth, traveling via Star Trek-ish time transporters, it's not only impossible to tell the good and bad guy apart at times, but pretty soon, you won't even care.
There are some nice special effects in this movie, and a super sound track that runs from jazz to hip hop to rock and rap, but there is absolutely no plot at all, and 90 percent of the battle scenes seem to take place in parking garages and sewers. They aren't nearly good enough to overcome this Jet Lag. I suppose this is all meant to be dark, but the primary impressions are just "low-budget" and "dull."
Review #2 from the second victim: chrisd
I really like Jet Li and I like science fiction, so *poof* -- a SF movie with Jet Li? A sure winner, right? Well, no. Now, I should point out that I don't expect Fellini from a Jet Li movie. I don't expect good writing, acting, casting, costumes, or even dialogue. I do expect a few things from a good fight movie, mostly good fighting, handy camera work and good lighting, and in an SF movie decent effects.
Unfortunately, "The One" disappoints. If you've seen the trailer or commercial (my way of saying spoiler warning ), there are some very cool things going on here: Jet Li kicking Jet Li's ass, Jet Li whapping people with Harleys, Jet Li flying through the air, walking the walls, jumping tenements in a single bound ... There is a lot of cool stuff going on. I assure you that must be the case, the problem is, they didn't do a good job of letting us see much of it. I don't know what specifically was wrong with the camera or editing work, but it just made you want to crane your head around to see what might actually be happening. Camerawork was one of the great things about "The Matrix." You could see and appreciate what was happening.
As Jon noted, the plot isn't really worth talking about, as there isn't much of one, and ieven that is very familiar. It's lsomething ike this: There are a bunch of universes, see, and so the bad Jet Li has traveled through 123 of the 125 universes killing the other versions of himself, becoming more powerful with every kill. As the parallel Jet Lis are killed, the Jet Lis who survive get more powerful, as the total Jet Liness is spread around into fewer Jet Lis. And so bad Jet Li, now very powerful, must kill good Jet Li (in our universe) to gain ultimate power. (Something Jamie calls the Law of Conservation of Jetliosity) Sound familiar? It should. It has been the plot of a number of science fiction franchises. In a scene near the end Jet Li even says "There can only be one of us."
But really, who cares about the story? This is a fight movie, after all. It should be judged accordingly. Can you picture watching a Jackie Chan movie and saying "gosh, this is really nothing like Sense and Sensibility"? Of course you wouldn't.
But you would want to see Jackie flipping ladders around while downing tequila shots and beating up neo-nazis. And Jackie delivers partly because you can see what he is doing. Jet Li is there, he's working, but the camera work stinks so you can't appreciate what he or his pals in Special Effects are doing. It's too bad -- "The one" could have been a lot more dumb, silly fun.
In short, if you really like Jet Li, go see it, but try to sneak in. One thing you can say about it is that it doesn't suck as much as "Romeo Must Die" did. (which isn't saying much, I know) and the effects when you can see them are kind of fun.
At first I was going to go see this, because I've enjoyed some of Li's earlier work (Though not as much as Jackie Chan's ;-) and I enjoy a good bit of kicking and punching. But after seeing the preview in the theatre (Or should I say spoiler...as that's what they all are these days...) I decided that this will be one to let the roommate buy when it comes out on DVD in a month or two.
Instead, go see Iron Monkey! It's absolutely wonderful Kung Fu and a great story. (IANAMA)
"I want peace on earth and good will toward men." "We're the U.S. government. We don't do that sort of thing!!"
There are no .9mm-caliber firearms. There are, however, lots of 9mm guns. (How do people come up with this stuff?)
...and forget Jet Li. This is far more entertaining :)
Actually, the "plot" to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is based on an old Chinese tale. Granted, I'm sure things got spiced up here and there for the big screen, but it was an excellent movie. :)
And c'mon guys... Jet Li has done worse movies than "The One"... anyone remember "Martial Arts of Shaolin"?
--
A flute with no holes is not a flute.
The real problem I had with this movie is that in order for the main bad guy to get stronger, he had to kill everyone.
What happens when everyone else in the other parallel universes dies? Then the last person becomes the one. This is inconsistant (unless everyone dies together and this was disproven early on in the movie). I think it made me realize that it was a bunch of semi-cool fight scenes (I think the first one is the best and it goes downhill from there)strung together.
The inconsistancy made this movie very dissatisfying, and I hope that Jet Li learns from his mistake.
I thought Neo was The One. Anyway, the movie is getting average ratings from papers across the globe. Here they are if you'd like a second opinion:
Chicago Tribune: 3 stars
Detroit Free Press: 1 star
E! Online: C-
Entertainment Weekly: C-
Did you know that the movie was originally going to star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson of WWF fame?
the byproduct of years of oppression by the white man
When I first heard about _The One_, I was incredibly excited. It sounded like the perfect merger between the Hong Kong action flick and Hollywood special effects. They've been adding big-budget effects to kung-fu oriented films for a while now, but for the most part, they were sed to add some bang to the fight, for big, over-the-top single attacks, or as a replacement for actors with real fighting experience. Here, they would be forced by the nature of the story to actually muck around with the way people move and
t ill-manages-to-hold-his-own role. I even liked the ending.
interact. Plus, I really liked Jet Li.
That was several years ago. This July, I caught my first glimpse of a trailer for the film at Comic-Con in San Diego. I became excited all over again. It looked like they had really done what I was hoping they would do. Jet Li's
character picks up a motorcycle in one hand and whacks somebody over the head with it. And while that's an obvious biological (and some may argue,
physical) impossibility, the sound and imagery contained enough gravity to convince me. The clips shown had a real impact, something that they'd only begun to incorporate in films like The Matrix and The Duel. Plus, I really liked Jet Li.
Then the TV spots came. Now I watch a lot of television, so I get a bit more exposure to advertising than your average human. I saw the trailer way too many times, and while I'm thankful that they didn't feel the need to put every action shot in the whole movie into the trailer, I did end up seeing the same stuff over and over again. I was still excited, but expose a person to something enough times, and they do get desensitized. But I still really liked Jet Li.
Then the reviews came in. I read bits and pieces of a lot of different reviewers and the consensus seemed to be that while there were some really
good fighting sequences in the movie, the rest of the movie was crap. Critics complained about poor acting performances and stupid plotlines. My
expectations fell significantly. I was still looking forward to what I expected to be a few really nifty action sequences pasted together with some shoddy plot-building scenes and crappy one-liners. But there is no denying the fact that I still really liked Jet Li.
So tonight, I went and saw _The One_. After I'd sat through the first twenty minutes of the movie, I began to wonder where all the awful acting was supposed to be. These certainly weren't Oscar-calibre performances, but Jet Li and Delroy Lindo gave as respectable an acting job as one would find in any good action flick. The storyline made sense. The actions of the characters were well-motivated. I laughed when I was supposed to. It was clear that the premise was over-the-top and that we were dealing with the soft science fiction of convenience and not the hard science fiction of physicists. Many
action movies, both from Hollywood and Hong Kong, seem to ignore the necessity of these elements. The rest of the movie doesn't have to be spectacular, but it has to be good enough to carry the viewers from one action sequence to
another. And _The One_ had enough quality in all the right places to do just that.
Now I realize that this is a lot of build-up for just a review, but I wanted to give a feel for the state of mind that I was in when I went to see this movie. When I first heard about it, I was expecting a bit more than was reasonable to get out of a movie. And yet somehow, _The One_ delivered. This is one damned fine movie. The fights and chases build steadily throughout the
movie as the hero and the villain dance around each other. They don't use their superhuman abilities sparingly. These are the two most powerful beings in the entire multiverse, and _The One_ does an incredible job of letting us
know. Of course all the chasing and dodging is simply rising action. It all leads to a final showdown, like the most classic of kung-fu films. We are promised a fight to end all fights, and we get it. It's not just super-fast
blows and fancy jumping and dodging. Every hit that is landed has the impact of a sledgehammer behind it. This is power.
The special effects are used with remarkable results. While there a few brief instances where a few more hours at a computer could have yielded better results, the overall impression is seamless and transparent. There was no doubt in my mind that there were two Jet Li's on that screen and that they were beating the crap out of each other at the speed of sound. Slow motion is
an effect that is rarely used properly, specially when extremely fast martial arts is involved. _The One_ is an exception. Due to careful attention to the laws of physics and the constant presence of normal-speed motion (e.g. falling sparks and turning machinery) in the background, we get a wonderful gut-feeling of just exactly how fast these guys are moving. Jet Li throws his arms and legs at ludicrous speed as he flies through the air, but at the same time, he's falling at a normal rate. Gravity still works, even though physiology was thrown out the window at the opening.
Incidental effects were also very well done, like the travelling-between-universes effect. The little bits of humor were funny, if a bit silly. Jet Li delivers an understated, but effective performance. Delroy Lindo admirably fills the obligitory nowhere-near-as-good-as-the-hero-or-villain-but-s
In short, this is one good movie, and you should go see it. The critics don't know what they're talking about.
And in case you're wondering, yes, I still really like Jet Li.
HC
HC
Gee, thanks, Ebert.
Why don't you at least link to his review instead of quoting without attributing it?
anyways for everyone else go check it out, it's a funny read.
"The chinese movies he has made are all, with few exceptions, excellent."
I disagree. Even if you are talking about just the martial action, he's had some bombs. I'll just mention the films I have actually seen.
Shaolin Temple. Slow. But it is a mainland production with all that entails (nice sets but threadbare plot, about Shaw Brothers in terms of production value.) Seen once.
Dragon Fight. Horrible characterization and even thinner plot. Stephen Chow before he was funny. Seen once.
Swordsman 2: Amazing action (if you can stand obvious wire-fu) but what in the world is going on? And how many times must I hear the sad drinking song? Seen 3 times.
Deadly China Hero. Wong Jing parody of OUATIC when Li decided not to do Wong Fei Hung. After this horrible thing (especially when he wears the chicken outfit to defeat the centipede group) he wisely? went back to OUATIC. Seen 2-3 times.
Bodyguard from Beijing. Rip off of "The Bodyguard" only this time Li's a mainland professional government agent. Predictable storyline nd medocre acting. Only saving gracce was the end fight scene with the natural gas spewing. Seen 2 times.
High Risk. Highlights of this Wong Jing film isn't Jet, it's Jackie Cheung as the Jackie Chan inspired numbnut. Seen 3-4 times.
Other Bad films: My father is a Hero, Fist of Legend (despite the technical brilliance the hackneyed relationship with a Japanese gf and her uncle seems too revisionist for my taste) and Black Mask.
Jet's best films are Once Upon a Time in China 2 and 3, Hitman (good acting all around and a decent storyline) and Fong Sai-Yuk 1 and 2 (again if you like wire-fu). These mix some decent characters, humor and action with good technical camera work and set pieces.
"the choreographer is the same who did choreography for The Matrix."
Yuen Woo Ping can make nearly anybody look good. He knows how to film shots and realizes that Jet Li's main martial arts style, Wu Shu, looks great on film even though it may not be best art for really punishing fights. Maybe that's why Ping's next hoped for prodigy Donnie Yen was also great in Wu Shu. Too bad Donnie is churning out his own stuff now.
Also look for work by Corey Yuen. He is easily on par with Woon Ping. You can check out Woo Ping on camera in Sammo Hung's IMHO best film, Eastern Condors.
"But the hollywood effect on Jet Li's movies is terrible."
I agree with most of what you say. But the problem with Hollywood is not only that Chinese emigres suffer, but they've had a horrible effect on the HK film industry. Instead of action dramas that successfully fused great acting, good storylines and innovative action sequences of the mid-to-late 90s, you see claptrap like Gen X Cops, Time and Tide, and the remake/sequel of Zu Mountain. These films use lowest common denominator plots, beautiful and successful pop stars and throw in lots of special effects to try to hide horrible or confusing storylines and threadbare character development.
I can understand Hollywood's paint by numbers approach because Hollywood is run by corporate beancounters. HK has fallen into the same trap going for glitz over substance and thinking special efects will draw audiences into movies we've seen done better a million times before.
What used to endear me to HK films was the hard work and actual physical demands placed upon the actors and produciton staff. These days they just generate digital effects to make the actors look like they are doing something. Yeah, the old Shaw Bros Wu Xia Pan films had lots of shots with no camera movement and crazy closeups, but to get all that action in one shot is amazing.
Save your money and go buy Shaolin Soccer. It uses special effects to enhance a good storyline with great acting and lots of actually funny gags. And just so you know the guy *doesn't* get the girl at the end.
Sorry for drifting.
For a lot of Asians Jet Li is like Julia Roberts in that they get to star in big movies but are amazingly annoying. Li rarely gets hits in films and is as emotive as a plank of wood. His style is Wu-shu, indeed he was the National Champion in China, is good for movies as it is very showy (debuts as a demo sport in the next Olympics), but Li *cannot* kick! His hands are superb, but his footwork is terrible....
:). The movie is spectacular because of the martial artists, the style showcased is Hung Gar Kung Fu and features some of his Yen's best work ever. Though I think Yu Rong Guang steals the show, he moves *so* well for a big man....
:P), and cinematography by long time partner Christopher Doyle, the movie is a heart-breakingly beautiful series of stories all interwoven seemlessly. Stunning.
:)
Iron Monkey is one of my favourite martial arts films of all time. In fact I have a laserdisc version from 1993
But for people looking to get into the genre, then try these movies:
Storm Riders - as close to a "living" comic book as you will ever see (stars Sonny Chiba!)
Bride with White Hair - Ronny Yu directs and Peter Pau (Oscar - CTHD) with perhaps his best cinematography ever.
Ashes of Time - Like Crouching Tiger, all Asian men want to be Kung Fu heroes, Wong Kar Wai (Chung King Express, In the Mood for Love) is no different. With action direction by Samo Hung (Martial Law
The Blade - Tsui Hark again (Iron Monkey), narrated through the eyes of a woman, this movie has the most deliriously violent and explosive examples of swordplay ever committed to film.
Zu: Warriors from Magic Mountain - Tsui Hark is remaking this one, soon to be released, the original had special effects crew who worked on Star Wars and this is where modern day HK wirework came from.
Yes I know that some of the "old skool" fighting films are great too, but I am recommending these for people who are getting into the genre. Else films like Dreadnaught, Prodigal Son, Drunken Master, Mars Villa, Venoms, and 36 Chambers would be here
But for me, the best martial arts movie of recent times is Ringo Lam's "Burning Paradise". Wong Fei Hung (Iron-Monkey) meets another legendary kung fu master, Fong Sai Yuk. This movie was directed by Lam who usually deals with serious dramas and so it is dark in tone and very violent. The sets, story, and production value are superb and the fighting (employing real monks!) has to be seen to be believed.
Regards,
Po