Action Movie Double: Taken and Ninja Assassin
TAKEN
Written by Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen
Directed by Pierre Morrel
Starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen
NINJA ASSASSIN
Written by Matthew Sand & J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by James McTeigue
Starring Rain, Ben Miles, Naomie Harris
Sometimes you just need a really good action movie in your life. The kind of movie that doesn't necessarily provoke deep philosophical ponderings, but rather expletives and the phrases "Whoa" and "YEAH" at frequent intervals. Sometimes you need two of such films, and you need to watch them back to back with good friends.
While Pierre Morrel's heavy-handed Taken could be construed by some as a more serious calibre of film, there's no mistaking the tone in Ninja Assassin, produced by mega-nerd masters Lana & Andy Wachowski. The former attempts to justify its violence with the pretence of justice and/or ruthless parental defense, whilst the latter revels in every arterial spurt that soaks the screen, and is composed of an array of slow motion sword battles and swinging blades with a boneless plot that struggles to bear it along.
In Taken, divorcee and retired CIA "preventer" Bryan (Liam Neeson) tries to regain the affections of his daughter (Maggie Grace) by signing a parental consent form allowing her to travel to Europe. Once there, she is kidnapped by human traffickers intent on selling her to any and all bidders, unaware of the wrath they bring down on themselves in the form of her father.
What follows is ninety minutes of Liam Neeson hurting people (caution: link contains spoilers). The action is swift, brutal and completely merciless. Conservative audiences will revel in this glorification of aggression as a response to aggression, but even more liberal or moderate audiences must admit that Taken's villains are the absolute scum of the earth. The sex trafficking industry is on form in all its grotesquerie, a perfect target for Neeson's calculated vengeance. He is truly unforgiving, particularly in an interrogation sequence reminiscent of Abu Ghraib atrocities: not just a scorned father, but a microcosm of the American political memory that never forgives or forgets a drop of blood spilled. What is frightening about having him as a protagonist is that his action is cruel but his motives ostensibly pure.
There are weaknesses in the presentation here: Holly Valance's completely unnecessary cameo, for one. More ghastly is the fawning over Grace's character Kim, who lives with her paint-by-numbers bitch of a mother (the otherwise wondrous Famke Janssen) in obscene wealth. The words "I love you" only seem to pop from the brat's mouth when she's being given a horse or the entire fifth floor of a Parisian hotel, making her far less empathetic. Once she is kidnapped, however, her character is no more than an inciting incident providing a reason for Daddy's arse-kickery. All of his fears of the world outside America are only confirmed by the film's action and Kim's treatment by her foreign 'hosts' - there is a lot of fear-mongering going on here, and no parent with travelling teens should watch this movie.
It is a vicious and overzealous film, but you can't do better if you're hankering for a serve of Liam Neeson causing grievous bodily harm to sex offenders.
Ninja Assassin sees Europol agents Mika (Naomie Harris) and Ryan (Ben Miles) investigating a succession of high-end political assassinations throughout history, discovering that the killers were all from the same ninja clan. Their findings are both verified and threatened by the arrival of Raizo (South Korean pop star Rain), a disgraced warrior on a mission of vengeance against those who cruelly trained him.
Here is a different breed of film altogether: a chop-socky joint effort fusing Japanese mythology with classic Western excess to birth a blood-slicked, twin-headed halfbreed. It's a kinda likeable halfbreed, though, presumably thanks to the input of the siblings Wachowski. It is also one of very few films to have not one but FOUR production studios pitching in - Legendary Pictures, Dark Castle Entertainment and Silver Pictures, with Warner Bros. Pictures distributing. Perhaps this explains the confused narrative and generally haphazard construction of character and plot.
These are not the elements you are here for, however. Events are easy enough to follow, though pointless and irrelevant, and it's more about the action, which is ludicrously gory and fantastical. The acrobatics impress and the slow motion slicing of blades through air and flesh is enjoyable, though it only just strays from monotony as it gets crazier. It is enough, at least, to maintain one's attention for the running time. The story certainly isn't.
The harder-to-forgive foolishnesses come from the twists of plot that save lives for sentimental endings, such as the revelation that someone stabbed presumably in the heart lives because they were born with their heart on the right-hand side. Please.
If you like flashing blades and bloodied knuckles, then you'll enjoy these fairly mindless flicks. Taken's sobriety may leave the audience with more to think on, but don't expect any intellectual revelations after witnessing the spectacle of Ninja Assassin. Just a little of the old ultraviolence.
While Pierre Morrel's heavy-handed Taken could be construed by some as a more serious calibre of film, there's no mistaking the tone in Ninja Assassin, produced by mega-nerd masters Lana & Andy Wachowski. The former attempts to justify its violence with the pretence of justice and/or ruthless parental defense, whilst the latter revels in every arterial spurt that soaks the screen, and is composed of an array of slow motion sword battles and swinging blades with a boneless plot that struggles to bear it along.
In Taken, divorcee and retired CIA "preventer" Bryan (Liam Neeson) tries to regain the affections of his daughter (Maggie Grace) by signing a parental consent form allowing her to travel to Europe. Once there, she is kidnapped by human traffickers intent on selling her to any and all bidders, unaware of the wrath they bring down on themselves in the form of her father.
What follows is ninety minutes of Liam Neeson hurting people (caution: link contains spoilers). The action is swift, brutal and completely merciless. Conservative audiences will revel in this glorification of aggression as a response to aggression, but even more liberal or moderate audiences must admit that Taken's villains are the absolute scum of the earth. The sex trafficking industry is on form in all its grotesquerie, a perfect target for Neeson's calculated vengeance. He is truly unforgiving, particularly in an interrogation sequence reminiscent of Abu Ghraib atrocities: not just a scorned father, but a microcosm of the American political memory that never forgives or forgets a drop of blood spilled. What is frightening about having him as a protagonist is that his action is cruel but his motives ostensibly pure.
There are weaknesses in the presentation here: Holly Valance's completely unnecessary cameo, for one. More ghastly is the fawning over Grace's character Kim, who lives with her paint-by-numbers bitch of a mother (the otherwise wondrous Famke Janssen) in obscene wealth. The words "I love you" only seem to pop from the brat's mouth when she's being given a horse or the entire fifth floor of a Parisian hotel, making her far less empathetic. Once she is kidnapped, however, her character is no more than an inciting incident providing a reason for Daddy's arse-kickery. All of his fears of the world outside America are only confirmed by the film's action and Kim's treatment by her foreign 'hosts' - there is a lot of fear-mongering going on here, and no parent with travelling teens should watch this movie.
It is a vicious and overzealous film, but you can't do better if you're hankering for a serve of Liam Neeson causing grievous bodily harm to sex offenders.
Ninja Assassin sees Europol agents Mika (Naomie Harris) and Ryan (Ben Miles) investigating a succession of high-end political assassinations throughout history, discovering that the killers were all from the same ninja clan. Their findings are both verified and threatened by the arrival of Raizo (South Korean pop star Rain), a disgraced warrior on a mission of vengeance against those who cruelly trained him.
Here is a different breed of film altogether: a chop-socky joint effort fusing Japanese mythology with classic Western excess to birth a blood-slicked, twin-headed halfbreed. It's a kinda likeable halfbreed, though, presumably thanks to the input of the siblings Wachowski. It is also one of very few films to have not one but FOUR production studios pitching in - Legendary Pictures, Dark Castle Entertainment and Silver Pictures, with Warner Bros. Pictures distributing. Perhaps this explains the confused narrative and generally haphazard construction of character and plot.
These are not the elements you are here for, however. Events are easy enough to follow, though pointless and irrelevant, and it's more about the action, which is ludicrously gory and fantastical. The acrobatics impress and the slow motion slicing of blades through air and flesh is enjoyable, though it only just strays from monotony as it gets crazier. It is enough, at least, to maintain one's attention for the running time. The story certainly isn't.
The harder-to-forgive foolishnesses come from the twists of plot that save lives for sentimental endings, such as the revelation that someone stabbed presumably in the heart lives because they were born with their heart on the right-hand side. Please.
If you like flashing blades and bloodied knuckles, then you'll enjoy these fairly mindless flicks. Taken's sobriety may leave the audience with more to think on, but don't expect any intellectual revelations after witnessing the spectacle of Ninja Assassin. Just a little of the old ultraviolence.
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