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A westerner named Casey, who while studying Ninjitsu in Japan, is asked by his Sensei to protect the weapons of the last Koga ninja which are kept in a chest in New York. In order to save his true love, Casey must infiltrate the underground headquarters of the Black Ring and come face to face with the evil duo, Masazka and Mr. Temple. Using the Yoroi Bitsu as bait, Casey leads his opponents into a deadly trap.

While "Ninja" showcases some pretty nice moves and some cool outfits as well, this movie shouldn't be confused with the yet-to-be-released "Ninja Assassin." Though the two movies bear similar titles, you can sure the storyline is basically very much the same. Good guys kill bad guys, rescuing pretty maiden along the way and whatnot. Sounds boring? Read on.

Basically, "Ninja" is very much like a comic book-to-silver screen kind of story. The opening sequence pretty much covers the entire storyline. It's that kind of story, where you are able to sense where the movie is heading. Unlike other martial arts or assassin movies, "Ninja" somewhat falls into the category of being too 'sci-fi' to being too 'over the edge'. Every move the ninja makes is very predictable. To make it even more interesting, those who trained under the secret art of ninjutsu can dodge flying bullets from all directions. Call it creative. Five minutes into the movie, you ask: what is the director selling? Muscles or the story? While ladies might drool over Scott Adkin's newly buffed up bods, the guys will find themselves killing to get to the thread mills.

The story focuses more on the ninjutsu's skills rather than building up a decent character foundation. The actors are having fun with each other but looks like they left us out of it! A supposedly romantic scene turned laughable. While this lack of engagement in terms of character appeal is acutely sore, thank goodness the action still excites people. Perhaps the selling point here (Scott Adkins aside) is the non-stop fighting between Asian and Western forces.

There isn't much to comment on cinematography. On the surface, it looks more like experimental - by using natural lighting and perfect action coordination. The annoying part is that the camera moves a lot especially in intense fight scenes, giving it an almost blur and out-of-focus feel. But all in all, it still captures whatever there is that needs to be captured.

While "Ninja" is not too bad a movie to watch over the weekend, there ought to be better movies playing. Let's hope "Ninja Assassin" will be better.