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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!!"
Who *really* sees Jet Li / Jackie Chan / etc movies with any intention of good screen writing, a plot, or any sense of meaning? just enjoy the gags and the moves. if you're poor buy it 3 years later from walmart or steal it or something.
I see every jet li flick I can, even if I know it's going to "suck", because the man is amazing. then again I guess I have low standards, since I don't even pretend to care about the existence of a plot line. bah.
EOM
There are no .9mm-caliber firearms. There are, however, lots of 9mm guns. (How do people come up with this stuff?)
I now know that Katz lives in some alternate dimension unto his own.
The Matrix plot, such as it was, was a paper-thin claptrap to frame the fusion of high technology and chop-socky, and chop socky still has better fight scenes. I honestly don't know why people like the Matrix so much. It was a bad, bad movie with some okay fight scenes.
But even letting my personal opinion of the Matrix go for a moment--and not having seen The One-- calling the Matrix spiritual and plot-laden is ridiculous. How is "Programmer finds out that the world is an illusion and that he is humanity's digital messiah" so much deeper than "Man finds out that alternate dimension version of himself is killing all the others to steal their power"?
At least he didn't talk about the affect of the One on globization, Columbine, and geeks in a post Sept. 11 world.
"Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life." -- Marcus Aurelius, _Meditations_, Book 9, 37
How old are you, 15? So if a movie is really not worth paying for, but you want to see it, someone should sneak in? This just reinforces the view that open-source types want everything without paying for it.
Do you feel this way about shoplifting too?
Please cut this crap out..
Crouching Matrix, Hidden Plotline?
Sounds like that sums it up perfectly.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
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
It's really a shame that Jet Li has gone hollywood.
The chinese movies he has made are all, with few exceptions, excellent. The fighting is astonishing and Jet Li is truly one of the absolute best martial arts actors out there. Just watch Fist of Legend and you'll see. That movie made me into a Jet Li-fan, and the choreographer is the same who did choreography for The Matrix.
But the hollywood effect on Jet Li's movies is terrible. Firstly because Jet Li is taken out of his habitat; he only speaks little English, let him speak Chinese in the movies damnit. Secondly because the fighting scenes are created into some strange blur, and it's freakin' impossible to see anything! Jet Li is incredible, but the fighting scenes are made into some camera-frenzy. If you watch Fist of Legend there are lengthy fighting scenes that are so good you want to see them over and over again, provided you are a kung fu-fan of course, and it's actually possible to appreciate their skills.
The camera effects were necessary on actors in The Matrix, since they need them. Jet Li does not.
One of the main issures that nagged me while watching The One:
/end nitpick
Jet Li's power increases because he kills the Jet Lis from other dimensions. Eventually there will be only one Jet Li left and he is supposed to have god-like power. But why is this so special? Unless all the copies of a person in all the dufferent universes simultaneously die, there will be exactly one copy at some point. Natural\accidental\other types of death will pick off the copies one by one. So, there should be god-like people popping up all over the place.
Oh Jon, Jonny Jonboy, stop trying to impress people with your over-analysis and mis-facts. "The One" is a quick & dirty Jet Li movie, and like all Jet Li movies, it's all about less plot and more action, of which there is plenty in this flick. Slow-motion scenes, wall-jumping and anti-gravity stunts are Jet Li's trademark. That's how it was in Black Mask & Romeo Must Die, The One is no different. He still kicks ass and he still looks like a kung fu heroin addict, and that just happens to look pretty darned cool on a big screen.
Give it a break.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
I now know which one wins. When the unstoppable force that is a ./ reader's love for The Matrix meets the immovable object that is a ./ reader's hatred for John Katz, it looks like the unstoppable force gets thwarted.
Heh... with most hollywood production, plot discussing IS the spoilage, everybody knows the endings are either predictable (80%) or scrap the entire movie (K-pax) (15%) in some rare cases you have a good ending that doesn't make you feel raped off your 9$ entrance fee (well here in canada anyways :) ).
:) , I'd be so freakin PLEASED to pay more just to filter out the garbage and not was my time and gas for that matter.
Example of a good balance of storyline, action, effects and ending for Sci-fi movies: Terminator II. You can have an hollywood ending without spoiling the entire movie, I almost cried when I saw him going down... I don't recall any movies that got my full attention and even got me right into it to the point that I was all messed up when I got out, not THAT'S entertaining, that's worth the price ticket, that's worth not being copied and BOUGHT on DVD, that I can have all respect from the MPAA or any other organisation behind it trying to protect their trademark and all.
Maybe if hollywood would start pumping more good productions like these (T2, 2001, heck, remember ET when you were a kid?, etc), people wouldn't download them off the internet and actually go see them in a big theatre with super dooper sound and popcorn, that would be worth it. Watching that on a monitor, or 25 inch tv would spoil most of it... Face it, it's far from being every pirate that owns a projection system or a 60" TV to enjoy a movie almost like if he was in a theatre. So maybe by making quality stuff and not taking their customers (audience) for complete retards, they would bring in more people.
My reasonning works when we look at almost every classics. Anything that is unbalanced, sucks or flop. (battlefield earth is a nice example of unbalanced).
Ask yourself what were the biggest success in the last 25 years... aside from tron that flopped because the people weren't ready for that kind of stuff, they all had something in common: Amazing or simple but good storyline, Excellent effects, good acting, good ambiance, all of this balanced.
I'd pay 20$ per movie if I was sure that I wouldn't be pissed or left on my appetite at the end, of course it's a matter of taste also, that being noted, there's also a baseline if you don't like scifi movies, you don't want to go see one just to get pissed afterwards
I'm sure I am not the only one.
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
YES! A 2 liner from a guy with goatse.cx listed as his home page totally dissing John Katz gets modded up to 4 (at the time of this post, I bet he's going for 5)! And here's the kicker - it's insightful! I'll bet this one will even pass on M2. Take a hint folks - we want Katz gone!
SIG: HUP
Jet Li will jump in the air, flip three times, dodge an oncoming car, push off a wall, and kick you in the face 5 times before you hit the ground.
Jackie Chan will jump in the air, flip three times, dodge an oncoming car, push off a wall, and slap you in the face 5 times WITH A LARGE TROUT before you hit the ground.
I rest my case.
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.