Director: Lloyd Lee Barnet.
Starring: Christian Oliver, Les Brandt, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Ernie Reyes Jr., Isaac C. Singleton Jr., Tara Macken.
Running Time: 84 minutes
Certificate: 15
NINJA APOCALYPSE certainly aims high with its obvious spin on THE WARRIORS meets THE RAID with added zombies and vampires, but this is simply a very poorly made film that hopes to get by on its premise, cover art, and title. Even these aspects are let down by a film that takes itself far too seriously.
After a generic apocalypse type situation involving nuclear weapons, supposedly used so as to just excuse the use of empty and desolate locations, clans of ninjas (because people would naturally become ninjas after the apocalypse) gather together for a peace summit. The summit goes wrong when those known as The Lost Clan are frame for the murder of the leader of the ninjas. From there the clan must travel up the floors from the secret bunker where the meeting took place as they are chased by their peers. There’s no shame in taking the main plot from THE WARRIORS, as it’s quite the effective story and is easily adaptable, but NINJA APOCALYPSE seems to forget the dramatic elements that made that story great.
The protagonists never seem to be in such danger as to warrant our empathy, nor do they come across as exceptionally skilled as to attain our admiration. Instead they stumble about until the plot also decides to add in zombies and vampires just for something to do. These elements are never fully explained but it does prevent the film from becoming excruciatingly boring.
With a lack of fun or charm about the whole thing, NINJA APOCALYPSE is a sad mess. The shots are poorly constructed, with some shots seemingly edited in the wrong place, while the cinematography is bland and uninspired. Here, the increasing use of lens flare is used to just mask poor choreography and even worse effects. Whether its the terrible slow motion to sped up transitions or the plastic looking blood, this isn’t enjoyable even as a bad film.
[usr=1]NINJA APOCALYPSE is out on DVD on 15th September.
