The USP of The Warriors Way is gory action between Ninjas and Cowboys. With Cowboys and Aliens just around the corner, I thought all my prayers are about to be answered. For years, fans have been fantasizing about mixing two or more cults. Firefly and Cowboy Bebop are excellent examples of Space Cowboys and Blood - The Last vampire had Samurai vs Vampires. There are plenty more examples to cite - some lesser known than others. Now that Hollywood is experimenting by mixing things up, I was super-excited about The Warriors Way. I am extremely disappointed.

The movie has all the tools to become a cult-blockbuster. It has an excellent cast in Dong-gun Jang (Korean superstar) as the rogue Ninja (also, the best swordsman in the history of mankind) and Geoffrey Rush as a reformed bandit (also, an ace-shooter of a cowboy). The film is produced by Barrie M. Osborne of The Lord Of The Rings franchise. Not much could have gone wrong. Correction: Not much ‘should’ have gone wrong. But a lot did. And the fault lies with the script by Sngmoo Lee and the screenplay. I can’t pick which is worse. The flashbacks come out of nowhere. The climate changes with every swing of the sword. It feels like they were really trying hard to make it a senseless flick.

The first five minutes of the movie took away all the built-up excitement as they attempt to be humorous amidst gory action sequences. So you begin to think, okay its going to be one of those “From Dusk Till Dawn” (classic Cowboys vs Vampires) kind of movies. But then the movie becomes serious, and only manages to be unintentionally funny. Some of the action sequences are really well done though. I loved the last twenty minutes or so of the movie. I also loved the fact that the movements of Ninjas is quite close to those in animes (like Naruto). But visual perfection only makes up so much for everything else that’s just mediocre. You are still sitting through the shoddiest screenplay ever, and some pathetic acting by the supporting cast.

Who doesn’t want to see Ninjas and Cowboys fight it out? So, I know you’re keen. But save your money, and wait for a DVD/TV release. Bonus: You can fast forward to the good parts and skip all the sad-drama in the middle.

This review is by guest reviewer Aniket Thakkar. Aniket Thakkar, is a writer and web developer, and he loves to talk about himself in third person. When he is not busy devising evil-genius plans of world domination, he can be found writing at his website http://flashfiction.in Ever since he took the red pill, he is on an ongoing mission to find out how deep this rabbit hole goes. Aniket Thakkar also blogs at http://flashfiction.in/.