This is a movie starring Jet Li. He is a movie star and a martial arts expert. In this movie he plays multiple roles of the same character. But these characters are the same person in different universes. What Jet Li’s “evil” character (who is just called YuLaw) does is hop from one universe to another, killing his duplicate in the other universes. By doing so he becomes stronger, smarter, and faster. But the “multi-verse” agents (MVA) are after him. They are trying to apprehend him without killing him, which ends up being a dumb tactic.
The movie starts at the end of his quest of killing “himself” in the other universes and we are now left with only two, Yulaw and Gabrielle. Gabrielle (or Gabe) is the “good” person and one of our heroes. The MVA is left with two options, kill both of them or capture both of them.

The special effects in this movie are awesome. The teleport sequences are both eerie and cool at the same time. There are also “bullet-time” scenes they pulled off beautifully. These scenes really show the power of our villain, and hero, and what they can do; as well as move the story along by changing the scene. They did a good job with the special effects and these effects never got in the way of the story telling. The special effects were not ground breaking like in other movies but what they did was make the special effects seamless.

One of Jet Li’s trademarks is doing wirework. So quite a few of the scenes have him doing superhuman feats, which are actually him being pulled by wires and then having the wires erased in post-production. What I like about this movie is they pulled it off so that it looks realistic, not like someone bouncing on a trampoline. You really believe that he can jump over tall walls and do these incredible kicks in the air. It is very fluid looking.

The acting is good and doesn’t detract from the story. For an action movie average acting is not the norm (it is usually worse.) Now no one is going to get an Oscar for their acting so don’t put your expectations too high, but it is still a pleasure to watch.

I really liked Jet Li’s performance. He played two characters that are different individuals. Each has their own unique mannerisms, fighting styles, and different ways of interacting with the multiverse agents. You really believe they are two different and unique individuals that just happen to look the same. I feel that Jet Li did a great job of portraying these characters.

Delroy Lindo plays Roedecker, a multiverse agent. As an MVA he is required to police the wormholes and protect the other universes from people that want to exploit these holes. Roedecker also used to be the partner of Yulaw. So there is a believable emotional connection between these two individuals. The dialogue between these two, while not Oscar caliber, creates the back-story and helps explain why he is reluctant to kill Yu Law.

Roedecker’s partner is Ethan Funsch (played by Jason Statham). He is a stern, no nonsense kind of agent. It appears that he is an ex-soldier and has an emotional scar from his experiences. Roedecker has to constantly put him in his place. I like how Jason Statham developed this character throughout the movie. At the beginning he is someone that I really didn’t care for, mainly because the character was acting with his head. But later on you can see him begin to operate with his heart and his humanity starts to show.

The woman that played Gabrielle Yulaw’s wife (Carla Gugino) did an ok job, but nothing significant. I think she was held back by the script more than anything and really only had a bit part (although important part) to play.

I liked the character building of Yulaw and Gabe. Each is treated differently and developed differently. You do get to know more about these two main characters from the beginning to the end and a lot of this development was done by the characters actions, not just with the dialogue. The only other major character development occurred with Ethan. He was not only developed but as a character he grew. Sort of like a coming of age movie. Shedding his past military life and becoming an agent.

One aspect of the movie I really enjoy is the flow of the movie. It is constantly moving the story along without fluff or extraneous information. So you as a viewer aren’t bored.

Additional material on the DVD
-Director and crew commentary-
-3 featurettes-

The key players
Director: James Wong
Screenplay by: James Wong & Glen Morgan
Music: Trevor Rabin
Martial Arts Action Choreography: Corey Yuen

Duration
1 hr. 27 min

Rating
PG-13


Other action movies.
Ninja Scroll
Ghost in the Shell
T2


Recommended: Yes