Review of 13 Assassins (2010) by Douglas L — 08 Apr 2013

This is the first time I have seen a high RT score for such a terrible movie. Cliche is what this movie is and any top-critic who rated this movie high should lose their job for corruption. This movie is full of bad over-dramatic acting, coupled with generic B-grade sword/kendo scenes. The worst part is the storytelling itself, the movie does an extremely poor job of explaining what is actually going on. The first 30 minutes are an incoherent mess and people who do not speak Japanese or have an understanding of federal Japan would be lost even more as the English translation uses Japanese words such as Daimyo with no explanation as to what they mean.

The blurb for the movie is the best explanation for the film, so you can skip the first half of the film which is a badly directed mess and instead watch the last half which is a battle sequence. This is what this film was made for, to showcase a somewhat amusing action sequence (which itself is just generic samurai-movie drivel with special effects).

Cliche, bad-acting, bad fight scenes, bad storytelling, bad character development, bad editing and bad sound effects (for example in the opening scene when someone is committing suicide, there are ridiculous sounds for the action) this movie is a big budget B-grade spectacle and not in a good way. Another disgrace to Japans once great film-industry.