Comic-Con Special Advance Screening of Ninja Assassin

It is 11 pm on the first full day of Comic-Con and I am being swiped with a metal detector, ordered to turn my phone off and handed a Ninja Assassin headband. A great question, as I am sure many are wondering, is how was I able to see this awesome screening?

I first sited a WB advertisement in the Comic-Con Events Guide. Under Thursday at 11 pm is said “Warner Bros. Special Advance Screening - To Be Announced”. The first step was even noticing this one entry in WB’s full page advertisement.

Thursday afternoon I hit the always packed to the brim Exhibit Hall Floor. I braved the long path through the masses to the WB booth. My plan was to ask about he screening at the booth hoping they had the information.

As I walked up to the WB booth an announcement was made stating they were handing out passes to the screening right now and the movie would be Ninja Assassin. I immediately made my way to the line for the WB booth. Yes, there was a freaking line, but not even to pick up the passes.

All these people were scanning their Comic-Con badges, for what reason I do not really know or care. Once it was my turn at the booth I asked about the pass for the screening and of course this lovely girl had no clue where the passes were.

Literally, as I am standing there asking about the passes another announcement comes over the speaker stating only a few passes were remaining. Luckily the girl with the mic and in the know came over to the booth right as she was making the announcement. I was able to snag one of the last passes they handed out.

Arriving early is also a key factor for going to any screening. I have been to a few screening where I was only a few people away from making it in. Of course WB probably gives out 25 to 50 extra passes because they figure some people will now show. I arrived at 10:20 pm and was able to make my way through the metal detector and into the screening of Ninja Assassin a full three months before its November 25th release date.

The Director James McTeigue was at the screening and introduced the movie.I will say James seems like a really cool guy, someone you could just go up and talk to, not that I did. James gained my attention after directing the spectacular V for Vendetta. After such a stunning directorial debut I am very interested in all his projects.

I actually saw the panel for Ninja Assassin last year at Comic-Con which first sparked my interest in this flick. The main character Raizo is played by Rain. I only knew of Rain after he appeared at Comic-Con last year and pretty much every girl in the room flipped out. Rain is a South Korean pop singer, dancer, model, actor, CEO and designer.

This multi-talented powerhouse has quite a following in the US, he actually sold out his first US concert in 2006 at Madison Square Garden immediately and had to add another day which also sold out! Raizo is one of the most deadly assassins in the world and his introduction, in which he takes out of whole room of foes, immediately shows off his skills.

Not only does he take out these adversaries, but they are all killed in a very specific disturbing way. Such as chopping off limbs, decapitation and various other spectacularly gruesome deaths which result from wielding various ninja weapons. We are told Raizo’s back story through flashbacks to his childhood when he was taken off the street by a secret society and trained to be a killer in what I will refer to as ninja school.

The Ozunu Clan, the secret society, runs this school and turns children into trained killers. The flashbacks dive into the harsh teaching techniques of The Ozunu Clan and focus on a friendship with a fellow student. We are frequently brought back to present time focusing on a scar or something particularity related to the flashback story which was a great transition technique.

Slowly we are piecing the character together. Naomie Harris plays Europol agent Mika Coretti who stumbles upon a money trail linking several political murders to an underground network of untraceable assassins from the Far East.

Most will be familiar with Naomie’s excellent performance in Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy as Tia Dalma. Defying the orders of her superior, Ryan Maslow who is played by Ben Miles, Mika digs into top secret agency files to learn the truth behind the murders.

The story moves at a very quick pace which works well with ninja assassins at the center of the movie. The main characters Raizo and Mika are played very well by Rain and Naomie . The supporting cast including Ben Miles compliant the main characters perfectly. The story kept me interested all the way through with only a few slow spots.

I must say there is one thing that bothered me about the ninja fights. The ninjas moved so fast it looked like their legs were not even moving at times. This bothered me quite a bit. To me this effect just seemed a bit over the top. However, the fight scenes are so well done it more then makes up for this odd effect. In the end Ninja Assassin lives up to its name and provides an awesome movie experience!

Be sure to check out Ninja Assassin when it hits theaters on November 25th.

Source: http://www.thedailycontributor.com/comic-con-exclusive-warner-bros-special-advance-screening-of-ninja-assassin