Review of 47 Ronin (2013) by Jc E — 20 May 2014

Part of me wanted to see this when I saw the trailer for it. Then another part of me said, "It has Keanu Reeves (The Day the Earth Stood Still) in it, so it can't be that great." Oh, sure, he has a couple good flicks - 'The Matrix' and 'Constantine' - but he's not exactly known for his charisma.

Regardless, I put it in my Netflix queue on the advice of a coworker, who said it was awesome. I had to inform him that he was wrong. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't awesome either. Between the collage of Japanese stars like Hiroyuki Sanada (The Wolverine), Tadanobu Asano (Thor: The Dark World), and Rinko Kikuchi (Pacific Rim) and the better than average effects work, you'd think they'd have a story to match.

You'd be wrong. It's not as completely predictable as you may think, but there's no real payoff, nor a whole lot of depth. I don't remember a single moment in the whole movie that I was transfixed by - with the possible exception of the owl-man, for no other reason than it was a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment.

It's not the worst movie you'll ever see - nor is it Reeves' worst - but it's nothing to write home about.