"The One" is about as dumb as sci-fi / action movies come, although it's built on an amusing premise. The world we live in is just one in a multitude of universes, and a bad guy named Gabriel Yulaw (Mr. Li) has been rampaging through over a hundred of these alternate universes, murdering every single alternate version of himself. What he wants is the power that comes from being the only copy of himself in existence. Standing in his way is nice-guy L.A. cop Gabe Law (Mr. Li again),as well as a pair of Multiverse agents (Delroy Lindo and Jason Statham) who aren't very good at what they do.
'X-Files' veterans and "Final Destination" series creators Glen Morgan & James Wong (the latter also directs) concocted this frenetic bit of over the top nonsense. It's one of those movies that tries to make up for its silly writing by devising one major action set piece after another, and by rarely slowing down its forward momentum. It's entertaining to a point, but after a while it becomes hard to care about anybody or anything here. The visual effects are plentiful, but they're mostly quite ropey. A case in point: the bad Jet Li picking up two motorcycles (!) and crushing a cop between them.
Li does remain watchable throughout. If you're a fan (or simply a die hard action movie junkie),you may be satisfied. But other people will be left wanting, since the central idea is not explored in any real depth. (Even counting the end credits, this only runs about 88 minutes long.) The supporting cast is decent (Lindo, Statham, Carla Gugino, James Morrison, Dean Norris, Tucker Smallwood, Steve Rankin, etc.),but they've been better utilized in other things.
Overall, you get to see the goods when it comes to Li's fighting skills, so the movie works in that regard, at least.
Good soundtrack, though.
Five out of 10.
The One
2001
Action / Sci-Fi / Thriller
The One
2001
Action / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Plot summary
There is not one universe, but there are many, which is a multiverse. Supposing you are just one person, there are many other versions of you in the other universes, there are ways to travel, but only a police agency, MVA, can travel only for police procedures. Gabriel Yulaw is a former MVA agent, who killed another version of himself in self-defense. It made the other versions of him stronger. When Yulaw found out about this, he became power-hungry killing the 122 other versions for two years. After killing Lawless and getting captured by his former partner Roedecker and a new MVA agent Funsch, Yulaw managed to escape the prison and is trying to kill his last target, Gabe Law who is a police officer. He is also at Yulaw's strength. Roedecker and Funsch now have to arrest Yulaw before he can kill Gabe. There is a possibility that the universe could die or make Yulaw invincible. After encountering Yulaw for the first time, Gabe thought that it was his split personality, but it wasn't. Will Gabe be able to confront Yulaw before or after Yulaw ruins his life?
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As a vehicle for Jet Li, it does its job.
interesting idea but many problems
In an alternate universe, superhuman Gabriel Yulaw (Jet Li) kills his double Lawless who is a prisoner being transferred. MVA agents Harry Roedecker (Delroy Lindo) and Evan Funsch (Jason Statham) manage to capture him. Yulaw has been traveling to other universes to kill 123 of his doubles to gain their powers. He is sentenced by the Multiverse Authority to prison in the Hades Universe. He escapes to our universe where his double Gabe Law is a L.A. sheriff deputy married to T.K. (Carla Gugino). It's his last double and the survivor becomes The One.
There are the backbones of an interesting sci-fi idea. It's Highlander in a Multiverse. It has good possibilities but this movie has too many problems. First, I love some of the fights. Putting everybody else in slow-motion is a genius idea that actually fits Jet Li's reputation. However he is not a good actor and this is not a simple acting exercise. He has to be different people and he has to be convincing as opposing Jet Li's. He's not up to the challenge especially back then.
There are also annoying things about the story. The fact that they keep trying to capture him rather than kill him is problematic. Later they come up with a questionable reason. If he's that dangerous, these people would do more to neutralize him. At least, wing him or chop off his hands. Evil Jet Li should never be captured until the climax. This multiverse world has too many questions that isn't worked out that well.
Simple plain fun!
The story is kind of forgettable. It's the premise that sounds promising. A what if ... there was more to it, than we know. Add to all that some amazing action and you have the movie "The one" with Jet Li.
Jet Li who is very good in this movie, as is Jason Statham. The latter also an action regular is just a supporting player here, but that doesn't mean that he can't show what he's made of. Still as you can guess the main attraction lies within Jet Li and his performance ... especially action-wise ... That should be your reason to watch this movie! If you expect some art-house/drama movie, than you're completely wrong here! Go watch something else, because here it's all about the action ... and the action scenes are good, so I can only recommend this title!