Ninja Assassin.

One that has been missed off the list for a few years now. I own it on Blue Ray and it is an 18 so finding time when no one is around and also when I don't have a burning desire to use the playstation for something else has been hard- this has been the first chance and I have taken it.

Ninja Assassin is quite obviously, as stated in the title, about a Ninja who is used as an Assassin. As always in the family there is always one who doesn't quite agree with their upbringing or teaching and they rebel. This one manages to destroy the entire family by the end of the film. No one really believes in Ninja's until they start digging to find some evidence of them and then they are quickly silenced or discredited. A successful way of keeping an organisation secret and keeping control of a great power.

The moves are fantastic. We come to expect a certain level of class from martial arts films, we want everything to look spectacular and fancy, we want weapons to be waved and people to die. This film gives us all of that whilst showing how pathetic guns are against true speed, skill and stamina. The Bane quote from Batman: The Dark Knight Rises- 'the shadows betray you because they belong to me' is very fitting for this film. Half of the time is spent trying to work out where they are actually standing or hanging. Once you have worked that out you can start to adjust your eyes a little better to the sequences going on before you. Every kill was in real time until the final blow which had a very Scott Pilgrim 'KO' feel to it but then instantly it went back into real time for the next opponent and the next kill. There wasn't any deep breathing build ups to fights and no ten minutes to kill one person- everything was real.

This film is unique. Like Sin City it is Neo-Noir but completely different. Probably closer to the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy in terms of style and filming but it is still unlike anything that I have ever seen. It can be placed in the martial arts category but I have yet to see anything quite like it. It is separate from the other martial arts films that I have seen and it doesn't fit into the free running style of film or a film like Dredd. I want to create a separate category for it but everyone deserves to have friends- no one deserves to be standing alone.