This movie postulates what if there is more than one universe. And that all of these universes are held together by one single stream of energy and that energy is equally distributed to every living in each universe and if one of these beings die, that energy is reallocated equally to each other surviving member. And with each allocation, a person becomes stronger. Now one universe has mastered the ability of crossing into another universe, and a man named Shulaw who believes that if he can kill all of his counterparts, he will become invincible, but there are those who believe that it might have detrimental effects, so try and stop him. Unfortunately, he just has one more person to kill, Gabe Law, but the officers follow Shulaw but Shulaw has committed some crimes and Gabe is accused and is wanted. But Gabe discovers that he has changed and only wants to kill Shulaw not realizing what could happen. A rogue Multiverse agent goes on a manhunt for versions of himself, getting stronger with each kill. With only one version remaining, he races against the clock to finish him and become "The One." This movie rips off several others: Highlander, Timecop & 12 Monkeys, The Matrix, Multiplicity, a couple of space and alien movies/series, and is generally a modern Martial Art Kabuki via 'Hollywood'. You could probably come up with more. Of course it contains lots of dead bodies, even if not graphic blood and guts. Lots of action maintains interest. Some funny scenes. Slow motion fight scenes are incorporated with pan-around camera action and what could be described as split-speed photography, which is actually interposed video layers using CGI (computer-generated imagery). It has an unexpected ending, and although I found it clever, I also found it wanting, personally. If you like Jet Li, Science Fiction, Martial Arts, or general make believe, then you'll like this movie. A keen mind may get bored and find real life more interesting, especially after having auditioned the movies mentioned at the top of this review. Remember, if you meet your evil counterpart, try not to dress like him/her so that others can tell you apart for at least a little while. If your counterpart has only a t-shirt like you but you're wearing a shirt over it, don't take the shirt off. That is, unless you wish to make it easy on the wardrobe department and also want to save money with low computer and camera use, and shorter labor and production site hours. Success can come from not spending too much time coming up with new ideas but reuse those that already work, keep costs down, crunch the numbers, and crank the movies out. Enough will like it to make a profit. Remember the first time you saw Terminator I? It may have struck you as a quantum amplification on the themes of an old episode of The Outer Limits (The particular episode "Soldier" comes to mind, obviously). The One takes Terminator and does the same thing to it that it did to The Outer Limits. –Which is to say it expands the earlier vehicles unmined or unturned implications in a totally unforeseen way, telescoping them into a truly mind expanding experience. The highest praise I can lay on The One may be to say its effects don't simply remain effects: They become part of the way you will see physical reality/ possibility, and in that sense really ARE senses altering. Suffice to say The One harnesses CGI technology in total service of the story and high concept. If you prefer the Matrix to The One, I can only suppose that it is the Keanu Reeves Fan Club calling your name. (That film had a brilliant concept, inadequately fleshed out, delineated in a single brief, remarkably horrific scene, and the rest was like bad 50s SciFi with too much spoken exposition and some chumps in headphones at a headquarters console bogging down the proceedings again and again.) The One rates a very solid ten stars. See it with ear plugs. Pseudo sci-fi gobbledygook aside, X-Files alumni James Wong and Glen Morgan's script is little more than an excuse for Jet Li to kick his own ass, which he does energetically and often.
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321 weeks ago