Search - The One (Superbit Collection) on DVD

Typical b-grade sci-fi/action film.

Eric | 11/08/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The One features an extremely silly, but also very intriguing premise. You see, our world is only one of over 100 (I can't remember the exact number, was it 125?)parallel universes that exist. You have a different personality in another world, and if you actually travel to these other worlds and kill another version of you, then you gain his or her power. That's exactly what Jet Li is trying to do, and there are a couple of multiverse cops out to stop him. This is all just build-up for a big one-on-one fight between the two Jet Lis, so you're basically watching 80 minutes of B.S.But that's not to say the idea doesn't hold any promise. It's just that the movie ignores the concept in favor of big fight scenes. Being an action fan and all, that's perfectly fine with me, except the action in this movie fails to generate any thrills since they're way too exaggerated and involve waaayyy too much wirework. And is it just me or does anyone else find the premise of Jet Li fighting Jet Li incredibly lame? The fun of watching a martial arts fight is seeing two different individuals going head-to-head, mano-a-mano. In this case, the fight is computer-aided and not even entirely convincing. The One does feature a few good actors, particularly Delroy Lindo and Jason Statham, both of whom are fine here, though I would have liked to have seen Statham kick a little more butt. He's definitely got the makings of a top-notch action icon, certainly moreso than the overrated Vin Diesel. But at least we can always watch The Transporter for that (which is, by the way, a far more entertaining action thriller). As for Li himself, he's stuck in a role that doesn't do him many favors. First, you have to wonder how his evil self is able to find his alternate versions in all the other universes if they have different names. Best explanation I can see is that he broke into the multiverse database and tracked down all the versions of himself out there, which actually raises another question: how does the multiverse keep track of everybody on every alternate universe? There are the usual paradoxes of an alternate universe, that being the fact the parallel worlds can't be too different if there is a physically identical twin of yourself in all these other worlds (meaning your parents would have had to have hooked up at the exact same time for all 125 worlds) and all versions of yourself would probably have to die at the exact same time, so as to make certain no other weird influences would occur (say, one version of yourself dies suddenly, but another one goes on and marries and has kids the other one wouldn't have; kind of screws up the order, doesn't it?). But according to this movie, not everyone dies at the same time in these alternate worlds, which begs the question of why there aren't any super-powerful geriatrics. After all, there must be at least one old man or woman who gains all the remaining power of those who died. Best not to think of such things with a movie like this. Makes your head hurt after awhile. But really, I recommend you just miss this movie altogether. There are a couple of enjoyable moments, including a scene where Li handcuffs some cops together and to a chair, but there's too much CGI at work, not enough thrills, and certainly not enough brains to pull this premise off. Jet Li's best American film to date is still Kiss of the Dragon, see that one instead."