Comment

Oct 08, 2015
Well. That was rather dreadful. I suppose it speaks volumes when an otherwise demographically-accurate gent like myself can find myself treating this film as background noise as I try out new hobbies (for instances, I now know not to make one's first foray into gymnastics when one is pushing thirty and owns more glass-top tables than is advisable). The legend of the 47 Ronin finds itself subjected to the scalpel of a Western director, writers, cinematographer, and somehow, even though Mr. Reeves is but one man in it, an unusually Western-type cast. I might disagree with a previous critic; the other actors in the film are in no way inferior to Keanu's actual acting skill. They are, in fact, superior, but I find foreign actors often come off as inadequate to Western viewers, and this is little more than a cultural prejudice, easily forgiven by all sides in the interest of art. But that selfsame cultural prejudice threatens to make the apparently mechanical Goliath of a samurai servant of Lord Kira's a fan favorite (fortunately, this monstrosity, like the majority of the supporting cast, is easily disposed of and with little emotional investment from the viewer). The story is slow through the first forty minutes, then tries to play a desperate and futile game of catch-up to create enough story to round-out the film. If we can disregard the incongruous and entirely fictitious (even for a cultural myth) presence of Keanu Reeves' "Kai", and the myriad points of "artistic license" taken to what I can only assume is sell an Eastern legend to a Western audience, this was a disappointment. Full-disclosure: I am capable of the level of sophomoric entrancement that leads to a film like "GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra" being both profoundly entertaining and worthy of the sort of middling praise and interest one would devote to any well-done action film. But this one made the effort, and probably the mistake, of attempting to retell such an important legend, and did so so poorly and with so little regard for the culture that spawned it, that it has a great deal to answer for, and shouldn't wonder at it's own commercial failing.