The One

I really liked The One for the action alone. It's only about 85 minutes long so don't expect a riveting story or some intricate plot because it's not there. The movie establishes its purpose in the beginning and that's pretty much it...no twists, no new discoveries, no heart-warming scenes that's gonna make you care for anyone. The movie is wall to wall action and rarely stops. This is a straight up action film with a sci-fi setting. It's science fiction without the science..Demolition Man style with with martial arts thrown in. Jet Li plays both the good guy and the villain and his villain role steals the show until the final fight scene. The Jet vs. Jet fight scene is amazing and shows that Jet is the man when it comes to martial arts and what he does can't be imitated. "good" Jet's BaGua Zhang fist style is beautiful for lack of a better term. "bad" Jet's Xinyi style is very brutal so it's not really graceful, just straight forward attack. Honestly it made the Matrix fight scenes look silly by comparison.

The wife and multiverse cop characters could have been developed better but they served their purpose. The movie certainly could have been longer and the soundtrack works in some parts and not in others...too much alternative for my taste. Those are the only problems I have with The One. It leaves you wanting more. If it's a box office hit it definitely has room for a sequel. Overall I thought it was a good movie for eye candy and action/martial arts junkies.

The One is a martial-arts flick with strong sci-fi concepts. But the bottom line remains high-kicking action, and Jet Li delivers.

Li also shows his acting ability in this film. He displays that he can do more than one personality.

As Yulaw, he's a cold-blooded killer who lashes out with sudden fury and insolent superiority. As Gabe, he's a dutiful lawman and devoted husband. (Sin City's Carla Gugino plays his wife.) In the middle are Multiverse cops played by Delroy Lindo (Domino, Romeo Must Die) and Jason Statham (Crank), who lead a super supporting cast.

Director James Wong and his co-writer, Glen Morgan, are X-Files veterans who know their sci-fi. Choreographed by Cory Yuen (also of Li's Kiss of the Dragon), the best fight has Li battling himself, with each character using different techniques.

The One is one film whose far-out concept works.

This is a cracker of a film. It has a cool story with plenty of fight scenes to easily entertain the most jaded viewer for an hour and a half.

The movie has a real smooth feel to it. The visuals, effects and cinematography, look like they have had plenty of money spent on them. So its pleasing on the eye.

The fights (the core of any Jet Li movie) are sanitised compared to some of his other material, opening it up to younger audiences. Yet they are teaming with cool moves and excitement.

The most relevant aspect of this movie is none of the above. Its the feel of the film. The film is fun and will put a smile on your face :)

After watching most of the recent action movies, I left the theatre with a headache brought on by incredibly tight/shaky shots and edits so fast that any hope of seeing anything is lost. This movie takes a step back from that. It isn't entirely devoid of those annoyances, but is much better than most. In fact, at times, you can even see a whole string of punches and blocks without a cut or a shake! Of course there is the inevitable wire work, that combined with the necessary special effects to allow Jet Li to fight himself. But for once there is an excuse other than "because we can".

The story is pretty simple. A murdering criminal is killing all the copies of himself in all the other "universes". Each time one dies the life force/resonant string thing, gets divided amoungst the survivors. Of course this leaves a ton of questions that aren't addressed at all in the movie, but I can live with that since those are more topics for debate after having fun at the movie. That is one of the strengths of the movie, the progressively more intense action. As the movie progress, rather than trying to deal with any question the viewer might have, the pace and intensity of the movie goes up. The final action sequence is probably ten minutes long all told, which, to me, is a sign of a true action movie, as opposed to movies with action.

Overall I give it a 8/10 for fans of the genre. If you aren't particularly interested in sci-fi/martial arts, especially if you have a problem with wire work and blue-screens, then you might want to skip it.

Jet Li has been able to come out with some good action movies like "Romeo Must Die", and "Kiss of the Dragon", but there is no doubt this has been his best movie so far. I absolutely love the plot for this movie. It's sci-fi, it's action, and above all it's pretty original. Jet Li is the best martial artist in the world. The actual fight scenes in Kiss of the Dragon may have been better, due to the fact little to no CGI's were used, but The One is a much better movie overall. What makes this movie work even more is the great selection of music. How can it get better than seeing Jet Li kick the not out of people while Drowning Pool's "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" is playing in the background? Other artists in the movie include Disturbed, and Papa Roach so you can get a pretty good idea of what the fight scenes are like. This isn't a best picture, though I'm surprised it wasn't nominated for effects. But in an overall enjoyment grade, I'd say this was one of my five favorite movies of 2001.