The One

A Review by

Benzine

The story isn’t too complex, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good story. The movie begins by explaining that there is not just a single universe but a multiverse each existing along the same timeline. In each universe, there is a version of you. They look like you, but have different personalities. Among you and the versions of you, a power is shared. When one of them is killed, the power they had is distributed among the remaining. Of the many universes that exist, some of them have figured out means of going from one universe to another, but travel is regulated by an agency. Jet Li’s villainous character ( Yulaw) was a former agent, but after killing another version of himself in attempt to defend himself, he realized that he grew stronger after taking the life of his other-worldly counterpart. He then desired more power so he started going from universe, to universe killing the others. That is until of course, he gets to our universe and meets up with Jet Li’s hero character ( Gabriel Law(Apparently, all the versions share the same last name.)) Once Yulaw gets to Earth, he of course continuously tries to kill Gabriel to gain the power he posses becoming "The One" and having god-like power. However killing the last remaining "Law" other than himself, could also destroy the universe, but that’s a chance Yulaw is willing to take. Gabriel is not alone in trying to stop Yulaw however. Two agents ,who work for the agency that regulates travel between universes, have followed Yulaw intending to capture him and bring him back to their universe. The two agents are played by; Delroy Lindo (Ransom, Devil’s Advocate), and Jason Statham (Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch). The movie ends of course with a Yulaw vs. Gabriel Law show down that doesn’t disappoint, and probably is worth the price of admission alone. Sure, the plot is slightly predictable, but I wasn’t expecting any award winning writing here.

I’m not an expert on acting, that’s more of Vig’s department, but from the little knowledge I have on the subject here’s what I thought. Lindo gives a good performance (for the short time he’s actually in the movie), but Statham doesn’t live up to the performance he gave in "Snatch". His performance doesn’t hurt the movie however, and both he and Lindo support Jet Li’s characters well. Jet Li’s performance in the movie was quite good. He proved in Lethal Weapon 4 that he can play a great villain and he proved that once again in this film. However, sometime when he was playing the hero, I couldn’t tell if he was the villain or not. I don’t know if he just couldn’t get out of the villainous character or what, but even when he’s playing the kind compassionate husband, he still seems cold. Jet Li still gives a great performance overall and does what he does best and that is martial arts.

The special effects in this movie should be talked about extensively, but if I did that then I would give away a lot of the movie. After seeing the previews, I thought that the visuals wouldn’t be as impressive, but they are so amazing that I could watch the special effects repeatedly and they’d never get old. It’s like "The Matrix" on crack. The way the fight scenes were filmed is outstanding. This movie is not as good as "The Matrix", but it still a great film. After watching the first five minutes of the film, I knew the movie would be all I expected. There were several points during the movie, that I wish I had a remote and could rewind a part and watch it again. The special effects in this movie need to be seen, it’s as simple as that.

In conclusion, this is a great action movie. Is this gonna win any awards?….Maybe some MTV movie awards, but nothing more. It’s still a great film that I believe raises the bar for action/martial arts movies as well as special effects. Sure the acting is slightly sub-par and the story is fairly predictable, but that doesn’t hurt this film at all. If you like action movies, I highly recommend this film, and if you loved "The Matrix" then you should definitely go check this film out.

Rating: out of four.

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