The One
2001
Director: James Wong
Second unit director: Corey Yuen
Stars: Jet Li, Carla Gugino, Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham
This movie could probably best be described as a combonation of The Matrix and Highlander. Jet Li plays a man who is able to travel to parallel universes, and by killing the alternate versions of himself, he gains special powers. Now it is down to just a final person that Jet has to kill before becoming "the one."
The One is just plain bad from beginning to end. There is no heart, no soul, and no fun to be had in the movie. It's all about computer effects and looking cool rather than setting up good action scenes or an interesting story. Speaking of the story, The One has to have one of the worst scripts I have ever seen. I didn't expect a lesson on quantum physics or anything, but the explanations given as to how the people can travel between universes and exactly how Jet gets all these new powers are underwhelming to say the least. And even though the movie only runs at eighty minutes, it feels much longer, because there are so many throwaway filler junk scenes that add nothing to the movie, such as one where Jason Statham (who plays a cop after Jet) goes into a long spiel about his gun -- which gets blown up in the next scene.
I would have forgiven some of the movie's shortcomings if it had managed to deliver some action, but The One can't even do that. There is very little "real" action in the movie -- most of it involves computer/camera trickery to show Jet's power. And there is an absurd amount of foot chases. Jet is supposed to be real fast, we get it -- there's no reason to have three seperate foot chases in a movie. The only decent bit of action comes at the end, where Jet fights himself. Probably not coincidentally, it uses the fewest digital tricks.
Supposedly, The One was originally intended for WWF wrestler The Rock, and it shows. Jet is nothing much more than a prop, something for the digital artists to manipulate. This is a cold and boring movie. I know Jet is getting up in age, and we as fans can't expect him to do the things he did in his younger days, but Kiss of the Dragon showed that Jet could make a good action film in the American system. Jet's American work seemed to have been getting steadily better, but The One marks a huge step backwards. It's the first Jet Li movie that I haven't liked. Spare yourself some pain and skip this turkey.
RATING: 3