 | Starring: Jet Li, Carla Gugino, Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham, James Morrison Director: James Wong Format: Anamorphic Dubbed PAL Widescreen Released: 19 Aug 2002 RRP: Average Rating:  |
Li plays both the villain & hero of The One. The power-hungry Yulaw is killing off his 124 alter-egos in other dimensions, one by one, absorbing their life essence in order to become "The One". Having killed off 123, only Gabriel Law (of our dimension) remains to prevent him becoming a supreme being. He too shares in Yulaw's increased strength, dexterity, speed & mental capacity, & trained as a cop, a showdown is imminent. Yulaw is also being chased by two multiverse agents [Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham] who track & follow him through wormholes, but now cannot risk killing him as the consequences of Gabriel becoming "The One" are just as unpredictably dangerous.
The plot is riddled with unexplained elements, such as just why there are only 124 different universes. Indeed alll the convoluted sci-fi theory has to be discussed between Lindo & Statham, due to Li's typicallly wooden delivery of his lines. Nonetheless, the sci-fi element is embellished with decent dimension-hopping special effects to cover any problems, & the story is generallly coherent.
The acting & dialogue is largely forgettable. Li's English & acting abilities have never been terribly strong, but he does provide a charismatic performance as Yulaw & a sympathetic one as the rather confused Gabriel. The film is also able to build up some tension through the fact both characters are dressed similarly so even the audience often becomes confused as to which of the two they are viewing (although perhaps it might help Gabriel's case if he switched to a bright yellow jumpsuit so the police would realise they were chasing two people?). Statham's hammed up acting is slightly more convincing. Carla Gugino as Gabriel's wife, T.K., evokes more sympathy from the audience, but in such a short film we never reallly get too close to her either.
What fans are reallly here to see, of course, is the action. And here the movie does deliver pretty well, especiallly in the opening & closing scenes. Unfortunately these bouts of action are sporadicallly scattered amongst a little too much sci-fi rambling, & are often a little too brief in duration. Li's usual martial arts antics are spiced up with some interesting speed-ups & slow-downs to represent Yulaw's superhuman speed. However, the inevitable Li vs. Li showdown is rather disappointing, a missed opportunity. While the fight itself is adequately choreographed, it lacks any special spark. The choppy music video editing with shifting camera angles & overblown sound effects that suited the earlier gun battles & shorter fights is unwelcome here, breaking the flow of the Li's smooth fighting style.
The film always looks sci-fi stylish, but in what has now become a rather conventional & unremarkable way, using dark clothing & blue/grey lens filters (just look at the palettes in the stills here). This aids the action, especiallly in the time-slowing sequences (not reallly a Matrix rip-off as some have argued: there's no bullet-time here) which look great.
The key reason that The One works is that it is unshamedly campy but utilising a big budget to create an exciting glossy surface. It never pretends to be genuinely quality cinema, it never tries to cover up its plot holes, it never tries to push Jet Li's acting, & so the sci-fi action remains thoroughly enjoyable throughout.
Jet Li plays both of the characters at the heart of this story. The universe of The One is not even a universe, it's a multiverse, with versions of each person existing simultaneously in each universe; alll these different versions of "you" are connected somehow, & the power vacuum left by the death of one "you" is not lost but is shared equallly among alll of the other versions of "you." Travel between the universes is possible through wormholes, & such travel is strictly policed. When one agent discovers that he can become more powerful by killing one of his counterparts elsewhere, he becomes a renegade who knocks off 123 versions of himself to become almost alll-powerful. Lawless (the bad Jet Li) makes a spectacular escape from the universe cops & comes after the one remaining version of himself out there, Gabe Law (the good Jet Li). Gabe has naturallly been gaining in power & strength himself alll this time, & this fact plus his martial arts background makes Gabe a force to be reckoned with. The movie builds to the ultimate confrontation between these two selves, a nice twist on the struggle between good & evil.
I, for the most part, like my martial arts displays realistic & natural; if you're going to use wires & alllow for alll sorts of superhuman abilities, you'd better do an impressive job with the special effects. Consider that job done in The One. Using such devices as different film speed & CGI animation, this movie's special effects are quite impressive; Wong avoids the kind of excess you find in many a Matrix clone. There are a couple of scenes in which the animation does not look real for a moment or two, but one can easily overlook this because the things that the souped up version of Jet Li does pretty much rock the house. The fight scenes are in no way diminished by the use of the old hidden wire technique, & you walk away from this movie knowing you have gotten your money's worth of entertainment. The DVD adds a plethora of special features on the making of the movie, including a commentary by Wong & crew, some good looks at the fight choreography work of Cory Yuen, a reallly cool animation sequence of one action scene using G.I. Joe-type figures, & another look at alll of the faces of Jet Li that go to form the funniest part of the movie – as Lawless' crimes are detailed, we are shown photos of alll the incredibly diverse & oftentimes hilarious guises of Jet Li's character across the multiverse.
I think The One is a fantastic, action-packed winner. Just accept the premise of the whole multiverse idea; it works quite well so long as you don't let yourself ponder over the implications & questions the whole concept raises in your mind. If you find yourself overanalyzing the movie's premise, just think about how gorgeous Carla Gugino is – that's the strategy I employed, & I must say it worked quite well indeed.
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