Karl Walter Lindenlaub

A ninja clan kidnaps children from around the world and raises them to be world class assassins with mystical powers (or kills them if they try to leave or fail to perform). An interpol agent gets the idea they exist, and so becomes the next target, while a renegade ninja tries to prevent them from killing her while simultaneously getting revenge. In those two sentences you have the entirety of the plot. This film is 10 minutes of plot setup, another 10 minutes of exposition, and the rest of the hour plus is people killing one another. That's not necessarily bad depending on why you wanted to see it. If you wanted a martial arts revenge film (which are traditionally short on plot, long on violence) you should be reasonably happy as long as you aren't averse to blood and cgi (as advertised everywhere, there's plenty of both). There are a few tidbits for classic ninja fans. The renegade ninja is named Raizo, perhaps after the actor Raizo Ichikawa who starred in many early ninja films, including the Shinobi no Mono series. The main bad guy Lord Ozunu is played by Sho Kosugi, himself famous for several ninja films from the 80's. On the downside for ninja fans: Few ninja weapons are used. Mostly swords slightly too long to be a Ninja-To, traditional Shuko climbing gear, some fairly large cgi shuriken, and a flimsy looking variant of the kusari that nonetheless seems capable of slicing a man in half despite not being big enough to do so (and also mostly cgi). Also someone has taken the term "shadow warrior" a little too far, and almost all the ninjas abilities (and hence their fight scenes) take place in total or almost total darkness (one suspects so they wouldn't have to hire people who could seriously fight on camera). The ninja are supposed to be assassins who suppress all emotion, and indeed Sho Kosugi seems to be able to emote more than the rest of the entire cast of ninjas despite having only two or three facial expressions. Rain (the good guy?) has one facial expression, and the occasional smirk. In short, if you're looking for plot, acting, or depth of any kind, go elsewhere. But if you want an old school mystical ninja/martial arts revenge film updated to include more blood than a human should have in his body, and tons of cgi weaponry with people taking hits that should have killed them three times over, this film will be a shining rainbow for you.

I finally caught "Prince Caspian" the other night. I was surprised at how much fun I had watching it. - I liked the opening of the film and the progression of the opening titles over scenes of Caspian's escape from the castle. - I liked the Reepicheep-point-of-view invasion of Miraz' castle. - I enjoyed the high film-speed effect on some of the battle scenes, and how raw and energetic the combat between Miraz and Peter was. - I was very surprised by how interesting Miraz was. I loved the scene where he was pressed by Edmund, and by his own council, into one-on-one combat with Peter. I loved that Miraz (most of the time) wasn't overplayed or underplayed - he seemed to have just the right amount of animation to seem corrupt and ambitious without becoming a simple caricature (certain sneering, Lord of the Rings villains come to mind). The 4 Pevensie children intersect with Caspian much earlier in the film than they do in the book, which brings about some interesting conflicts within characters. There is the romantic attraction btw. Susan and Caspian. And the absence of Aslan has a different effect on the characters as they discuss their choices. There is a pronounced rivalry between Peter and Prince Caspian that, strangely, never seemed to sway the loyalties of the Narnians as I would expect it to. In the book, Lewis does away with any conflict between Peter and Caspian with a single line from Peter: "I haven't come to take your place, you know, but to put you into it." (p.184)

Beautifully shot and authentic, performances were great. Script was somewhat stilted and occasionally made no sense in order to serve plot twists but don't give up. Surprise ending is great. Carice Van Houten gives superb performance.