Review of The Last Samurai (2003) by Jedi C — 27 Aug 2012

The true story may not be well known, but Edward Zwick's fictionalized version is well done with its honorable soul, artistically thrilling violence and action sequences, and the great performances of Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. However, being fictionalized, it suffers from mediocre characters and Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe are the only actors with a pretty good script, but the rest of the script is still pretty flawed, but thanks to Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, and Edward Zwick, it's impressively tells the true story in it's artistically fictional way thanks to the intelligent writing which strengthens the character development despite the mediocre characters. But what's important about The Last Samurai being artistic is how it makes a realistic and impressive depiction of the Samurais of the era the film is set, especially due to the amazing costume design, art direction, and cinematography that nicely elements martial arts and makes it look almost perfect. Even Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe's performances make wonderful Samurais and Edward Zwick makes the battle sequences look superb.

~8/10.