Rated: PG-13
Running Time:1 hour, 36 minutes
Tabitha's Rating: **/5
Synopsis: There are 125 parallel universes, each with a different version of you. One man decides he wants to be the only one of himself, so he kills 123 versions, and now it is down to two, and the death of one decides who will be The One.
Who would win in a fight pitting Jet Li against Jet Li? Oh come on, Jet Li, no contest! Are you crazy, Jet Li could totally destroy Jet Li! Excuse the sarcasm but, this movie was just pitiful! How can I take it seriously if they obviously did not take the movie making magic seriously? Oh where to begin the list of downfalls? Well there's the plot, or rather, lack thereof. The concept of parallel universes is interesting enough, but the trouble is, they did nothin with it! They talked a little about it in the beginnind, but they never took it to a deeper level. The trouble is, James Woo, director, has fallen into the same trap as other recent asain directors trying to make it big in the United States. The put action at number one priority above character developement and story and the result is good action but the other than that the movie pretty much sucks. (I.E. The Musketeer, Mission Impossible 2). Not only did the plot suck, but it was also completely predictable...boring. Let's see, good cop Jet Li versus evil murderer Jet Li? Who do you soppose is gonna win? Oops, did I give away the ending? Wait...there was nothing to give away...
Next, let's discuss the actors, and the script they had to work with. The script was, in one word: CHEESE! Admittingly, an actor can only do so much with what he is given...still the actor should do something with it! Jet Li's timing when delivering lines, particularly "funny" ones, is horrrible. Maybe it's his accent? The secondaray characters, mainly two Multiuniverse cops, got the worst of the cheese of the script. Delroy Lindo, the "wise" teacher of the pair was like deja vu, since he played the same character in Gone In 60 Seconds (only he did a much better job with a much better movie). His sidekick, portrayed by Jason Statham was totally shafted by the director/ co-writer, James Woo. The English actor was hilarious in the films Snatch, and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. He definately should have gone after a better script. The rest of the characters were easily forgettable.
Finally, the only draw of this movie would be the action and special effects sequences...which were not very special at all. The director attempts to combine Kung Fu fighting with Matrix style special effects...(Note to Hollywood: formula's involving mixing Kung Fu with popular American ingredients like Tom Cruise, sword fighting, etc, are NOT A GUARANTEED HIT!). Yes, action was good, but we've seen it before. There are awesome movies out there with these ingredients, that are already out on DVD! For those of you thirsty for asain fighting styles, check out Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or a good Jackie Chan flick. Itching for special effects that are really special? May I recommend the Matrix or even Terminator 2. There was a couple original stunts like the picking up motorcycles and squashing people with them scene, but most were simply cheap copies of greater films. They literally had a scene in slow motion where speeding bullets are being dodged by Keanu.... err I mean, Jet Li.
Bottomline: Don't waste your money on this piece of crap attempt at movie making.
