"The One" Rated PG-13
****/*****
All right, let's get one thing cleared up: I didn't love The Matrix. Don't get mad at me just yet. This isn't a review of The Matrix. It's just something that needs to be cleared up. I liked The Matrix, but not nearly as much as everyone else. That being said, The One starring Jet Li is better than The Matrix. It is a much more exciting and entertaining movie. It contains more than just one scene of great action, awesome special effects (that, despite the advertisements' appearance, are NOT a copy of The Matrix), and, surprisingly enough, a really good story.
The story centers around one fact. This is that there is not just one universe, but many... a multiverse. One universe has developed the power to travel between universes, however the travel is restricted. There is an agency that polices this travel. Jet Li1, Law, figures out that if he kills himself in all of the other universes, he will become like a god. He has already gained abnormal strength, speed, and intelligence. The movie starts with Jet Li1 about to kill the second to last Jet Li out of 124 (125 including himself), he does, and the rest of the movie centers on his quest to kill the last remaining Jet Li (Gabe).
He comes to the last universe (the one we live in now, unaware of the multiverse) followed by two Multiverse agents (Delroy Lindo and Jason Stratham) who are trying to capture Law and save Gabe. That's the basic plot, however there is more stuff about a case of mistaken identity between the two Jet Lis and some other stuff you don't really need to know.
This movie has a lot going for it, but it could have been a lot better. Throughout the whole movie, I couldn't help but think about how much better the movie would have been were it more like Terminator 2. Jet LI could have been a really evil bad guy and made the movie a lot better, like in Lethal Weapon 4. Jet Li was a perfect bad guy in that movie, and in that sense, The One was a little disappointing.
However, the action is incredible. The time bending type special effects are really awesome and, I repeat, NOT a rip off of the Matrix. Jet Li also did a pretty good job coming up with two distinct styles of fighting for the two characters. And, as I said before, the story was surprisingly good.
