Ninja Apocalypse

The title sounds good but it's nothing but an failed attempt to imitate the cult classic The Warriors, it's almost like it was made by a couple of teens which tried to be cool by adding super powers to a few characters ala Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter 2. The actors can't even act properly, i lost my interest after 32 minutes. It's a complete waste of your time having to sit through this abysmal piece of crap.

This movie was entertaining to watch as it had a cast that did a good job in their roles and the special effects along with the cinematography were outstanding. The fights were well choreographed and the script was evidently mostly copied from another movie but it was pretty good overall.

I guess I didn't get the memo, that a re-imagining of The Warriors was on the way. But I did watch it and unfortunately it doesn't hold up. There are other elements mixed in for and you have a certain dignity with Cary Tagawa, who's not only reliable, but also brings gravitas (even underground, yes!).

The effects are OK, the fights are also OK, for the budget that this movie had. I guess if this was made in the 80s (yes, like the Warriors, but even by that standard it lacks quite a bit), I might have liked the group mentality and the quirkiness of the movie. Characters are OK too, not much acting and not really any surprises (twist!) ...

After the end of the world as we know it, the wise master Fumitaka calls all Ninja clans for a peaceful assembly. He is murdered by an unknown killer, and the leader of the Lost Clan is framed for it. He wants to find out who the real killer is, but before he can start his revenge mission, the Lost Clan members have to butcher a bunch of zombies living (or rather: existing undead) next door for some strange reason.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa ('Tekken', 'Mortal Kombat') as Fumitaka is the only serious actor here. All the others seem to be a bunch of students. Asian movie fans will probably cringe in their seat when they watch the amateurish fights, looks more like a Saturday night tavern brawl than trained ninjas at work. Nothing needs to make sense here, for example the Siren clan wears shiny new skintight black leather, while everyone else wears dirty rags. The script must have been some kind of fanboy dream, filmed with a minimal budget almost entirely in somebody's basement, there are hardly any outdoor scenes to show the 'postapocalyptic world'. I think 'Ninja Apocalypse' was not a complete waste of time to watch, because it is one of those movies which are so bad they become rather funny, occasionally at least.

This is an OK time-pass movie. Like if you don't have a AAA title to watch or just want to have a casual watch you can look at this. It kinda like Mortal Kombat meets Resident Evil meets Starwars Light Sabers meet Ninjas.

You have your good Raidens and Liu Kangs and your bad Reptiles and Tanyas with Shang Sung. Budget as you can tell is quite low but still decent stuff pulled off. Story wise well just your average survival stuff.

In short, its not a total waste of time and for a video game fan like myself this could prove to be a nice watch since you can tell from where the movie makers were inspired from to make different set pieces.