Release Date: November 2, 2001
Starring: Jet Li, Carla Gugino, Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham
Directed by: James Wong
Written by: Glen Morgan, James Wong
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Entertainment
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (intense action violence, some language)
A film that involves the classic science fiction theme of traveling across parallel universes, an acclaimed action star and martial artist, and cutting edge special effects should have made for a high-octane roller coaster ride of a movie, but, alas, in James Wong's The One, the emphasis wasn't on those aspects in that particular order. Instead, The One depended on special effects so prolific that viewers will doubtlessly find their attention distracted from Jet Li's unique, too-fast-for-film martial artistry, as well as whatever limited plot and character development is taking place. The result was not the aforementioned high-octane roller coaster ride but a frustratingly incoherent narrative.
The narrative does have a decent setup. Multiple universes exist but the balance between them is kept safe by the Multiverse Bureau of Investigation. But things look to get shaken up when a former MBI agent, Gabriel Yulaw (Jet Li, Kiss of the Dragon), travels through 124 universes to hunt down and kill each one of his alternate selves to gain their strength and power until he is the only "one." He has killed 123 and the only other one standing between Yulaw and what his transformation into a godlike being is Los Angeles County Sheriff Gabe Yulaw (also Li). Chasing Yulaw through the various universes are his old MBI partner Roedecker (Delroy Lindo, The Last Castle) and a new agent named Funsch (Jason Statham, Snatch).
These characters aren't actual characters, but mere paper machete cutouts used to push the story along. For instance, when Jet Li is fighting himself, the audience doesn't care what the outcome of the fight will be because they don't care about the characters (or perhaps the film's relentless use of alternative rock music as the background to each fight dulled the audience's sensitivity to one-dimensional characters).
But it's no surprise because the script is shallow all-around. Science fiction should be somewhat plausible within the context of the real world, but this movie failed to explain critical plot information like why the same people would exist in different universes. Or why, if there are only 125 versions of each person, there wouldn't be one last survivor each time. It's obvious that writers James Wong and Glen Morgan should have put a little more thought into the plot's premise -- but judging from how thought-provoking (gag) the rest of the plot is already, maybe they thought the audience just wouldn't notice.
An interesting angle that gave the film some depth was the confusion of the two Yulaws' identities. There are times when the viewer is unsure which one is good and which one is evil, and the plot could have been substantially more intricate by pursuing this thread. In fact, Morgan and Wong did the opposite by not giving the audience enough credit. For example, the climatic battle between the two Yulaws could have been greatly improved if the audience didn't know (rather than didn't care) who to root for. Instead, the evil Yulaw takes off his shirt to avoid confusion, and any chance of suspense is lost.
The One wasn't a total waste of film thanks mostly to the performances given by Delroy Lindo and Jason Statham. There is also plenty of satisfying action that is almost worth sitting through, especially since the movie's running time is a very brief 87 minutes. But the ending, thanks in part to Jet Li's poor acting (or possibly his broken English?), is dissatisfactory and unfortunately leaves the film open for the possibility for a sequel. Hopefully, this movie won't draw in the big crowds, because if it does, it may not be long before we see The One II.
all contents © 2001 Ed Malinowski