THE ONE
January 20th 2009 01:39
Director: James Wong
Written by: Glen Morgan & James Wong
Producers: Glen Morgan & Steven Chasman
Starring: Jet Li (Gabe/Yulaw), Jason Statham (Funsch), Delroy Lindo (Roedecker), Dean Norris (Sgt Siegel), Darin Morgan (Hugo), Dylan Bruno (Yates), Richard Steinmetz (D’Antoni), Harriet Sansom Harris (Nurse Besson) and Carla Gugino (TK).
Produced by: Columbia Pictures & Revolution Studios
Released by: Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment
Running Time: 87 minutes Rating: M 15
Do you ever get a video out of the video store; or in the case of this particular offering from the shelves of my local library, and get the feeling as the credits role after having watched whatever particular movie you recognise the names of certain people but just can’t place them? When the dust had finally settled on the martial arts antics of Jet Li and the credits were finally rolling I definitely had that feeling, certain names had appeared, namely those of the director, one of the producers and the guys involved in writing the story behind it all. Something was trying to tell me that these were names I should be well and truly familiar with, not as familiar say as members of my family or close friends but they were people I knew on some rather obscure level. It was then that like a bolt out of the blue that it finally hit me, Mr Wong and Mr Morgan were involved in making the X Files, either as script writers or directors or both if memory serves me correctly.
So in this feature, The One, we see them bringing their talents to the silver screen and with one of the big names in action films, Jet Li, no less. Now as alumni of the X Files production team they are not going to just spin out some kind of standard flick full of action and maybe a bit of romance, no it has its weirdness naturally built in. They don’t actually wait for the action to begin, the weirdness begins slap bang strait of the start with the opening. The premise here is heavily based on the concept of multiple universes, parallel dimensions and alternate realities, all of which apparently do have some sound basis in science. Tied into this is the whole concept of black holes/wormholes and the means by which travel between other universes is possible, via by what seems to be some real serious spaghettification for the travellers (and use spaghettification is a fair dinkum scientific term people!) seeking to cross over as it were into other realities.
But wait…there’s more…you bet there is. For each alternate reality there is, each individual exists in each of those alternate universes, kind of spooky. In one of those universes Al Gore actually one the presidential election and not George Bush, possibly there is even a universe where George Lucas became focused on directing soppy arty farty romantic comedies and not seminal space opera epics, my god what a truly frightening universe that would be to live in…it doesn’t bear thinking about really. So a vast conglomerate of realities and you exist in various guises in all of them, so what would happen if one of your incarnations decides that reality doesn’t need all the other manifestations of you? What if this particular one of you decided to travel the vast expanse of the multiverse killing off all the other aspects of you? That is the main premise behind the films unfolding story.
Yulaw is a man who seeks to become The One, he is travelling the multiplicity of realities using stolen technology and killing off all the various incarnations of himself. Unfortunately after reaching and killing incarnation 123 in a universe where Al Gore is president, he is tracked down and captured by the multiverse cops. Apparently in one of these realities someone has set up a law enforcement agency to try and prevent just exactly what Yulaw is doing as if he manages to end up becoming “The One” it could be a bad thing. Precisely how bad is never specified, some claim the world would end whilst others say that Yulaw would implode and there are some who claim that he would achieve godhood. Regardless preventing him from reaching his objective would be best for all concerned, including the remaining aspects.
Of course after having terminated one hundred and twenty three versions of himself Yulaw is not exactly just an ordinary guy any more, he has become faster, stronger, smarter and is generally one bad ass dude to try and take on and stop him from achieving his agenda. This apparently is the benefit behind a mass multi dimensional killing spree, you gain tremendous power from it…but there is a down side, with each death, the remaining energy becomes dispersed amongst less incarnations so by the time you get down to just two aspect, you and one other, that other person is unlikely to be a pushover. This is what Yulaw discovers when he attempts to finally eliminate that last and final aspect that is in the way of becoming “The One”.
You’d be right to think that Yulaw has something of a messianic complex, and he interestingly justifies his actions by claiming that he was just bringing some kind of order to the whole of the multitude of realities, he also questions as to whether you can be justifiably tried for killing yourself. Although what he fails to realise is that all these different aspects may look like him, sound like him but they are for all intents and purposes different people. A similarity in surface appearance does not automatically mean they are not unique individual with as much right to exist as anyone else in the multiverse. One wonders (pun intended) if Yulaw is the first such individual who has attempted such a course of action, the fact that his actions are defined as a criminal offences illustrates that he would not be the first, but he would certainly be the first to get so close.
This film was relatively easy watching and like I said when the dust had finally settled between the titanic confrontation between Jet Li and Jet Li, I have to admit it was enjoyable. The eventual climax of what could be seen as a personal apocalyptic tale was very interestingly done, it has a twist which after all the twisting and spinning as Jet Li engages in a martial arts showdown against himself was not what I was expecting. No doubt you loyal audience will probably pick up on it a lot quicker than me, but I had to admit from my own perspective it was a bit out of left field for a film like this.
Written by: Glen Morgan & James Wong
Producers: Glen Morgan & Steven Chasman
Starring: Jet Li (Gabe/Yulaw), Jason Statham (Funsch), Delroy Lindo (Roedecker), Dean Norris (Sgt Siegel), Darin Morgan (Hugo), Dylan Bruno (Yates), Richard Steinmetz (D’Antoni), Harriet Sansom Harris (Nurse Besson) and Carla Gugino (TK).
Produced by: Columbia Pictures & Revolution Studios
Released by: Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment
Running Time: 87 minutes Rating: M 15
Do you ever get a video out of the video store; or in the case of this particular offering from the shelves of my local library, and get the feeling as the credits role after having watched whatever particular movie you recognise the names of certain people but just can’t place them? When the dust had finally settled on the martial arts antics of Jet Li and the credits were finally rolling I definitely had that feeling, certain names had appeared, namely those of the director, one of the producers and the guys involved in writing the story behind it all. Something was trying to tell me that these were names I should be well and truly familiar with, not as familiar say as members of my family or close friends but they were people I knew on some rather obscure level. It was then that like a bolt out of the blue that it finally hit me, Mr Wong and Mr Morgan were involved in making the X Files, either as script writers or directors or both if memory serves me correctly.
Yulaw is a man who seeks to become The One, he is travelling the multiplicity of realities using stolen technology and killing off all the various incarnations of himself. Unfortunately after reaching and killing incarnation 123 in a universe where Al Gore is president, he is tracked down and captured by the multiverse cops. Apparently in one of these realities someone has set up a law enforcement agency to try and prevent just exactly what Yulaw is doing as if he manages to end up becoming “The One” it could be a bad thing. Precisely how bad is never specified, some claim the world would end whilst others say that Yulaw would implode and there are some who claim that he would achieve godhood. Regardless preventing him from reaching his objective would be best for all concerned, including the remaining aspects.
Of course after having terminated one hundred and twenty three versions of himself Yulaw is not exactly just an ordinary guy any more, he has become faster, stronger, smarter and is generally one bad ass dude to try and take on and stop him from achieving his agenda. This apparently is the benefit behind a mass multi dimensional killing spree, you gain tremendous power from it…but there is a down side, with each death, the remaining energy becomes dispersed amongst less incarnations so by the time you get down to just two aspect, you and one other, that other person is unlikely to be a pushover. This is what Yulaw discovers when he attempts to finally eliminate that last and final aspect that is in the way of becoming “The One”.
You’d be right to think that Yulaw has something of a messianic complex, and he interestingly justifies his actions by claiming that he was just bringing some kind of order to the whole of the multitude of realities, he also questions as to whether you can be justifiably tried for killing yourself. Although what he fails to realise is that all these different aspects may look like him, sound like him but they are for all intents and purposes different people. A similarity in surface appearance does not automatically mean they are not unique individual with as much right to exist as anyone else in the multiverse. One wonders (pun intended) if Yulaw is the first such individual who has attempted such a course of action, the fact that his actions are defined as a criminal offences illustrates that he would not be the first, but he would certainly be the first to get so close.
This film was relatively easy watching and like I said when the dust had finally settled between the titanic confrontation between Jet Li and Jet Li, I have to admit it was enjoyable. The eventual climax of what could be seen as a personal apocalyptic tale was very interestingly done, it has a twist which after all the twisting and spinning as Jet Li engages in a martial arts showdown against himself was not what I was expecting. No doubt you loyal audience will probably pick up on it a lot quicker than me, but I had to admit from my own perspective it was a bit out of left field for a film like this.
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