The One Review
by Karina Montgomery (cinerina AT flash DOT net)November 12th, 2001
The One
Catch the Network Premiere
What little good that can be said about The One is easily summed up in this sentence: Jet Li fights himself. Imagine a kind of WB sci-fi goof-off on Highlander, with a screamy metal soundtrack and throw in the deep dramatic quandaries of the Patty Duke show. Jet Li is cool, handsome, and fast, but the multiverse is not enough. It's a movie based on adrenaline over answers, tenuous plot over tenterhooked audience. If Highlander 2 taught us nothing else about murderous campaigns to obtain ultimate power, it taught us this: It is better to burn out (1 Highlander Film) than fade away (The One).
There are some specklings of amusing moments or ideas, such as the multiverses, alternate universes essentially just like ours, but with slight changes in cast. I particularly enjoyed the death-flavored names of the various universes (Stygian, Anubis, Hades, to name the ones I recall). The idea of inter-dimensional hijinks and the consequent police force is an interesting notion, but it has been carried out far better on any network TV show currently running. And those are free. The One is worth a rating of Network Premiere because the good part (where Jet Li fights himself for a perceived 20 minutes) is basically blood and profanity free, and it's cool to look at. Conceivably you could see it for free on TV one day and not worry about the soullessness of paying for this drivel. Unlike the one decent scene in the Musketeer, we want this moment to happen, and the plot (such as it is) builds toward this moment in a fairly natural way.
The designers got in a couple of amusing jabs through the magic of alternate, contemporary realities. In one realtity, Gore is president, and in another, Bush cares about universal health care. So now I have ruined two of the three jokes in the film, specifically so you won't be tempted to see it out of curiosity. Let this be a warning to you.
Definitely, if you need an insultingly written kung fu fix, get the always satisfying Jackie Chan movie. If you're forced in the video store to choose between this and The Musketeer, by all means choose this one. But really, don't ever let yourself be that desperate for entertainment. Vacuum instead. This movie is not completely incredibly insulting and it does have a lot more fighting than the Crapketeer. Do not, by any means, go see The One hoping to be fulfilled in anyway (Li fans, I'm sorry to say that he does not remove his shirt). The One ain't Neo, much as he tries to be. Good luck keeping up with the accidental misleading of the audience by alternate Li's dressing identically. It's got Van Damme spirit, yes it do, it's Van Damme's spirit, not Matrix 2.
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These reviews (c) 2001 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but just credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks.
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