Subject: Review: One, The (2001)

From: Homer Yen <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 19:31:19 -0000

“One” to Forget
by Homer Yen
(c) 2001

When Jet Li stops taking himself so seriously, maybe
audiences will begin to warm up to him.  When he
learns how to crack a smile, maybe audiences will
better relate to him.  When he finds matieral that
elevates him above one-dimensional projects, maybe
audiences will venture out to see this Asian action
sensation.  But until that happens, Jet Li is starting
to look more and more like the Asian Jean Claude
Van-Damme.  And not all the roundhouse kicks, rock and
roll music, and computer wizardry can ever save him.

“The One” is his latest botched release, a completely
unremarkable and implausible sci-fi story.  In this
film, there are as many parallel universes as there
are complaints with the film.  The premise is that
there are 124 of ourselves spread across 124 parallel
universes.  Now, further imagine that one of you is so
evil that he has embarked on a quest to jump from
universe to universe with the goal of killing his 123
other ‘selves’ until he is the only one left.  Why
would he do this?  

The film suggests that the last one remaining could
become a God.  Hmm…  And, no one would want to harm
him because if you destroy God, you destroy the
universe.  Double-Hmm…  Naturally, this would enable
him to rule everything.  Triple-Hmm…  Perhaps Li’s
fame has finally gone to his head.  

The deluded, evil one is YuLaw (played by Li) who
eventually makes his way to Gabe’s (also Li) universe.
 YuLaw, by this point, has acquired amazing strength
and agility.  When he runs, his form is blurred.  He
dodges bullets using "Matrix"-like abilities.  And
when he fights, he has gravity-defying combination
moves that make him look like a video game character
out of Mortal Kombat or Tekken. 

For most of the movie, YuLaw seeks out Gabe and causes
lots of havoc along the way.  This includes attacking
many overmatched police officers, threatening Gabe’s
love interest (Carla Gugino) and battling
dimension-traveling officers (Delroy Lindo and Jason
Statham) that have been in pursuit.  Sadly, YuLaw is
just so dominating that watching him fight is about as
fun as watching a bowling ball strike bowling pins.  

“The One” looks to have a lot of potential, but the
film needed a more creative person to helm the
project.  For example, given the fact that there are
124 parallel universes, couldn’t the film be set in a
more creative place than Los Angeles?  And why is it
that we visit only three (or four) universes?  

But the biggest question is what genius thought that
the audience would want to see Jet Li fight himself in
the finale?  That’s like Superman fighting Superman. 
Who do you think would win?  Who really cares?

We become so disenchanted with the direction of the
film that we’ll likely overlook the technically
brilliant computer effects that create the Li v. Li
final showdown.  The scene is incredibly fluid.  If
there was an achievement award for “Most
Excruciatingly, Technically Difficult Effect to
Create,” this sequence certainly deserves to be
nominated.

However, you’ll demand much more from this measly
film.  If you like Jet Li, you’re better off renting
out something at the local Chinese video store.  If
you need instant martial arts gratification, go seek
out “Iron Monkey”.  In any universe, this film should
be exiled.

Grade:  C-
S:	1 out of 3
L:	1 out of 3
V:	2 out of 3

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X-RAMR-ID: 30156
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 264885
X-RT-TitleID: 1110343
X-RT-AuthorID: 1370
X-RT-RatingText: C-