Why, oh why did Jet Li turn down the offer to be in the sequels to "The Matrix"? If he chose to do those movies, he would probably be the biggest Asian star in the country. As a fan of Jet Li, I wanna see him in a great movie, and he's been in some great ones in Hong Kong, most notably his "Once Upon a Time in China" movies. He had a great American debut with "Lethal Weapon 4," but since then, he's done "Romeo Must Die" and "Kiss of the Dragon." Not good. Now comes "The One." The trailers looked really good, so is this the movie to be worthy of his talent? Sadly, I can't say that's the case. "The One" is Jet Li's best American film to date, but it's still not all that great. It's a disappointing movie, and once again, I gotta ask myself why, oh why did Jet Li turn down the offer to be in the sequels to "The Matrix"?
Based on the E-Mail I get, people are very passionate about martial arts films and Japanese animated films. In fact, almost all the negative E-mail I get is because people get so touchy about how I rarely give a positive review to any of those. Well, I don't like anime, so that's all I can say about that. When it comes to martial arts movies, though, maybe it's because I've seen some really good ones made in Hong Kong, and because of that, I have high expectations for the martial arts movies made in America. But they're never as good as the ones outta Hong Kong. Can anyone out there honestly give me an American Jet Li film that's as good as "Once Upon a Time in China," or "My Father is a Hero"? Jackie Chan has found more success, but does "Rush Hour" or "Rush Hour 2" (I like both, but I wouldn't call them martial arts movies) come close to "Drunken Master II"? Trust me, I'd love for Jackie Chan and Jet Li to have great martial arts movies made in America, but it hasn't happened yet. I really, really want it to, though. I WILL tell you this: I'd rather see a bad martial arts movie that stars Jackie Chan or Jet Li than sit through anything that stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal.
Jet Li is amazing when it comes to martial arts, but his English is distractingly bad. I don't have that issue with Jackie Chan, but with Jet Li, I have a hard time dealing with it. Also, his acting isn't as good when he's speaking English. He hasn't quite figured out how to deliver the dialogue. He doesn't have that problem with his Hong Kong movies. In fact, his acting is great in those flicks. He needs to work on his English, as well as delivering English dialogue. The other performances in the movie are all very good, though. Carla Gugino, who I think is very sexy, plays the wife of the film's hero. She was recently in "Spy Kids" and "The Center of the World," and I like her as an actress. She's cool. Delroy Lindo, who was in "Romeo Must Die" with Li, plays the cop hunting down the villain. Delroy Lindo is a great actor, and he has an awesome presence. Jason Statham is good as his hot-tempered partner. He was in both of Guy Richie's movies, "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels."
Did you know that before Jet Li was cast as the lead, this movie was supposed to star WWF superstar, The Rock? This movie woulda been very different if it starred The Rock rather than Jet Li. At least with Jet Li, it had the martial arts, ya know? I like The Rock, but without the martial arts, "The One" is just a bad sci-fi flick. Then again, maybe The Rock's charisma, which he has a lot of, would have made up for whatever else it would have lacked without Jet Li. I guess we'll never know.
"The One" isn't really a bad movie, it's just... I dunno, it's just there, ya know? I sat there watching it, and it had good moments, but I didn't care about what was going on. The sci-fi parts of it didn't work for me at all. I liked the fight scenes, but the story that surrounded it did nothing for me.
Considering who was behind it, I'm surprised that I didn't like the story more. I'm an on-again-off-again fan of "The X Files," and "The One" was written by Glen Morgan & James Wong, who are known for writing some of the best episodes of "The X Files." James Wong directed the movie, as he did some episodes of "The X Files." Morgan and Wong have worked together on a feature film before, though I didn't see it. The movie was "Final Destination," but it seemed like just another teen horror flick, so I passed on it. I heard pretty good things, though.
The final fight sequence in "The One" is very, very well done. I don't wanna give anything away, but it couldn't be easy to do. Still, it looks great, it's believable (relatively, at least), and even in the slow-motion shots, it's hard to see any flaws. You'd probably have to go frame-by-frame on the DVD to see any.
Hopefully, Jet Li will release an American masterpiece sometime. He recently signed on to do an American movie with Jackie Chan, and though that's a team-up that people around the world have been waiting years for, I don't think anyone should get their hopes up. Hollywood is sure to screw it up. It would probably be a lot better if it was a Hong Kong movie. I really hope I'm wrong though.
Scale of 1-10: 6