Sci-fi fans know the name James Wong from his work on The X-Files, and Space: Above and Beyond, and eagle-eyed fans will recognize more than a few faces as Wong delivers this sci-fi actioner that he shot in Vancouver.

Trotting out the idea of the multiverse several years before the MCU made it mainstream, he and his frequent X-files partner, Glen Morgan, wrote the script that puts Jet Li face to face with himself.

With a multitude of universes, Yulaw (Li) is a multiverse agent that has gone rogue, killing off his other-selves in those universes. Each time he kills he gains more power, and realizing this he intends to become a super-powered being by killing all of them.

The last target is Gabe (Li) who is a Los Angeles cop, married to a veterinarian, T.K. (Carla Gugino), and Gabe is not ready for where the night is going to take him.

Coming face to face with himself is troubling enough, but when the multiverse police, Roedecker (Delroy Lindo) and Funsch (Jason Statham) give him all the details, Gabe realizes that there may be no out for him either. If he dies, Yulaw becomes a powerful being, if Yulaw dies, Gabe, whose own speed and abilities are growing will become that person, and the multiverse agency can’t allow that to happen.

It’s a fast-paced tale that has some nice moments, filled with visual and character echoes, and a lot of wire work.

Is it great? No. The script is fun, but knowing the writing of Morgan and Wong makes you wonder if the finished product was what they wanted, or if they were forced to compromise during the production.

The visual effects are already dated, and probably didn’t look so great at the time either, despite some cool ideas. They do a nice job of making it look like Li is fighting himself, Statham is underused, though you can see the screen persona he’s grown into starting to develop.

Instead of delving into the ideas that create this universe, the film has a less than ninety-minute runtime, and is more intent on giving lots of action beats, and a VFX extravaganza. But it never works as well as it could have, and that’s too bad. I like the idea, and we’ve seen similar things before, Timecop comes to mind, but the story always seems intent on delivering action sequences instead of an interesting narrative, which this one definitely would have had.

Still, it was fun to watch Li do his things, and I always enjoy Delory Lindo’s performances. Throw in picking out familiar Canadian actors, and tying them in with their roles in Wong and Morgan’s works, and The One is a fun exercise in early 00’s action films and what they could have been.