Not the best of ways

"The Warrior’s Way” has been advertised as an action-thriller but turned out to be a confused, cliche-ridden letdown.

The movie follows a ninja assassin, Yang, who was exiled by his clan of ninjas because he refused to kill an infant from his enemy clan. This leads him to a small circus town in the middle of a desert as he defends and carries the baby along with him.

The better part of the movie focuses on Yang’s relationship with Lynn, a member of the town who throws knives in the circus. While it’s clear that they are supposed to be falling in love, they seem to have more of a teacher-apprentice relationship, and the romance feels forced.

The script is pretty bleak too, especially for Yang, whose limited vocabulary seems to include nothing but cliches.

The movie isn’t terrible by any standards; the visuals are great and the fight scenes are choreographed quite nicely, but action and romance end up competing, resulting in a movie that is neither a great action flick nor an epic romance story.