*** Official "THE ONE" Review Thread (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "The One.". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread. Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning! If you need to discuss those type of issues, I have designated an Official Discussion Thread which can be found at this link .
Again, without warning, I will delete all posts that are not a HTF member review!
Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Crawdaddy
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Peter Staddon: "I didn't say you can put 'Monkeybone' back!"
[Edited last by Robert Crawford on November 04, 2001 at 04:19 AM]

 

[Alex Spindler]

*Copied from the recently designated Discussion Thread*
I was fairly disappointed in the film in many areas. What makes it so hard is that Kiss of the Dragon was right in so many ways. A real back-to-basics film that I thought was a move in the right direction.
This one had so many things to be disappointed with that I'm a little concerned that it got as far as it did.
First,
Why don't they just let the man do his stuff. I initially loved the special effects scenes where he could move ridiculously fast, but they got so tiresome and I felt like any non-martial artist could have taken the role. It was only in certain sections of the ending that there was any real physical combat.
Second,
Waaayyy too short. I mean, it was over before it had a chance to get going. Why not show at least one more acquisition to get us in the swing of things. That they essentially repeat the first scene 5 minutes later doesn't help at all. Maybe show some scenes where Gabe learns to harness the power he's had all along.
Third,
Totally inconsistent. Not that I'm trying to read into this too much, but there were some severe story problems. Why was Law afraid of the multiverse guys at all. They weren't any more powerful or fast than normal people, and their weapons didn't appear to be any more effective (despite being "smart"). I would have thought he would have dispatched them at will, but instead he runs or capitulates every time. Then there is the question as to why Gabe doesn't exhibit all the power that Law does from the beginnning. He had some abilities, but they weren't anywhere near Law's level, even though they were equal.
Of course, I specifically didn't read into the script, because it was not written to make any sense. But they could have included some basic meat and potatoes story elements to flesh out the story.
Fourth,
The music was ridiculous. Very disappointing musical choices, that had the same effect as they had on Universal Soldier: The Return, make a bad film even harder to experience. I can appreciate a modern soundtrack for a film if they match up the scenes to it well and choose some nice tracks, but these were damn near inappropriate and silly.
The only parts that I really enjoyed was the first scene, some sections of the ending fight (the spark section was pretty fun visually and was bookended by some nice fight choreography) and the end
Spoiler:The perpetual King of the Hill in Hades was a nice touch, and certainly preferrable to killing off Law.
Giving this one

, with the extra half for the 30 seconds that Mark Borchardt (from American Movie) was in it and for the beginning, which had some some impressive beatings in it (before it got old).

 

[Patrick Sun]

Well, okay, here's my mini-review of "The One".
This film is probably too ambitious in concept (because it's sort of poorly thought through) and raises far more questions than it tries to answer. But if you can overlook that and just sit back and imagine what Arnold Schwartzenegger could do if he had martial arts moves in his films, this would be the kind of film he'd make.
Jet Li does what he can to make his moments in the film look "kewl", but for all the amazing stuff he can physically do, there's always that extra bit of CGI that undermines it. I didn't hate it, but didn't quite love it either. At least his English is getting better, and he does try and gives us some emotional moments, but they fall flat at the wrong times.
The main reason to see "The One" is if you enjoy Jet Li movies (for the martial arts action), but it won't make you thirst for another film by him like his earlier films.
I give it a grade of C+ (for the fight sequences), but it'd be a better rental later on. Oh yeah, this film is quite loud and will rumble in a home theater.
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PatCave; HT Pix; Gear; DIY Mains; DIY CC; Sunosub I + II + III; DVDs; Link Removed

 

[Mark Palermo]

At its surface, The One is such grade-B action shlock that it won't be surprising if its intriguing science fiction concepts go unnoticed. It's a good movie pretending to be a very bad one. Helmed by director James Wong of the surprisingly literate Final Destination, the film imagines a Multiverse, a series of 125 parallel universes--each separated by a worm hole–that house the same people and have either Bush or Gore as the US president depending on their evolutionary state. Jet Li plays Yulaw, a man who's discovered that he can obtain God-status by killing the 124 other versions of himself and thereby obtaining their strength and intelligence. Interuniverse travel is illegal, but Yulaw provocatively argues that he's not in fact killing anybody since he's actually every one his victims and their essence will continue to live within his body. Li is ideal for the role because, like Yulaw, he's more of an accumulation of energy than an actor of much personality. Wong's resistence of bludgeoning his concepts in the foreground has left several major critics to label the film confusing or underdeveloped. They simply weren't paying attention. By shrouding everything in a simplified narrative consisting of wall-to-wall video game violence, The One bypasses long-exposition to play like any direct-to-video killathon (a tamer version of Li's sadistic, excruciating Kiss of the Dragon). Unarguably junk, but when is junk ever this thoughtful?

 

[EricW]

this movie was just so bad. i heard it was originally supposed to star The Rock, and considering his acting abilities, it probably would have fit much better. the fight scenes were okay, actually better then i thought they would be. the characters basically acted in irrational ways and did illogical things so that the plot would go wherever the writer wanted, leaving the viewer to ask at their own risk (of insanity).
stupidest part: (teaser)
near the end of the movie when both Jets are ported back to the police place, one jet points to the other, saying he's the bad guy, and Yep! that's enough for the cops who start to take the accused to the prison universe. i mean even a 6 year old would find that stupid.

 

[Tom Oh]

I'm normally a very harsh critic, but I rather enjoyed this ONE. The main reason was a very very low expectation. I got 2 VIP tickets to the HK premiere because no one wanted to go see it at the office. Free + low expectation + premiere atmosphere = fun. Yes, there are plot holes and its cheesy in parts, but I liked it. Better than Time Cop for me.