Review of 47 Ronin (2013) by Jbbangar — 17 Jan 2014

A good attempt to tell a classical Japanese story, but as much as I wanted Keanu Reeves and this movie to do well. It fell well short of its mark.

Too much smashed into 1 story, the set up for the premise of the whole narrative ate too much time at the start of the movie for you to really develop any real connection to the characters. You never really are FOR the good guys and don't really hate the bad guys too much, because you just don't know about them too well. The only character that mattered was the over-weight funny guy. He seemed to the only one who had any depth compared to all the other one dimensional "angry Samurai" in the movie.

The fantasy and the fighting sequence were OK, but for a movie that was based in a semi-fantasy world. There was hardly enough to make it a spectacle (even if it took away from the plot-line) and by today's action sequence standards, the fights were a little to plain. From movies like the original Bourne series to the Jackie Chan movies where realism and action scenes meet, this wasn't risky. It had an element of fantasy which they could have played off for action scenes and even worked into the plot line.

However the movie really doesn't really exploit this, which I think cost it dearly in terms of engaging an audience.

All in all, its a decent pop corn movie. I watched in 2D but from what I could tell it might have made a decent 3D movie it terms of value.

But for a story line and as whole, not a movie I would recommend to many.

But keep at it Keanu, your a fantastic actor and would pay in heartbeat to watch the next movie you put out.