Review: 47 RONIN

Keanu Reeves' new film is neither ‘Matrix’ nor a cheap rip-off but for what we saw in the trailers, it sure has many aspects like it. This is our review of '47 RONIN'.

By Staff

Many including some of this blog’s staff waited impatiently for this film. Now that we've seen it, what do we think of it? Oh the disappointment...

The film tells us about the "true" story, which is actually a legend, of the 47 Ronin (former samurais) that fought for their nation's wellbeing. Reeves plays 'Kai', a half-breed with a dark and mysterious past. He lives in Ako after the town's samurais found him in the woods. They use Kai during their war and defense missions even though they don't consider him one of their own or a samurai. After an act of treason, the town's defenders are expelled and the town is left to be ruling of the emperor of Nagato, 'Lord Kira', who with the help of a witch, is looking to take control of the entire Japanese nation. You don't have to see the trailers and we don't need to tell you what happens next, since it's pretty obvious.

Analysis and opinion:

The story is simply boring. The screenplay is flat and predictable. They added some fantasy aspects to it to make it more interesting but they are neither something we haven't seen before or, sadly, interesting.

The cinematography, one of the technical aspects that looked more promising in the trailers fails terribly! For starters, many, MANY sequences are out of focus and with bad lighting. The 3D promoted as superb and other superlatives is almost non-existent. Add bad editing on the samurai fight-scenes to make matters worse.

Oh yeah, we almost forgot to mention Keanu Reeves. His interpretation is flat and the character's arc feels forced. We have nothing more to say.

A movie that goes forward because the screenplay said so but as far as emotions go, they were expecting that the visual effects (which are mediocre at best) to dig them out of a hole, but didn't.