47 Ronin

This review may contain spoilers.

I had forgotten who Keanu Reeves was going into this movie and I wish he had stayed that way now. For me 47 Ronin was a 5.5/10.

I went into Ronin with low expectations and these were exceeded but not by much. It's attention to Japanese history, tradition and mythology is wonderful and an aspect I feel is overlooked. The effects aren't awful but nothing stand out and in places come across as television effects. I feel as far as costuming and make-up goes that is the true accomplishment in which everything looked wonderful. The fight scnes were fairly entertaining as well.

Hiroyuki Sanada, who played Oishi, basically carried this film as far as acting went in my opinion; the man understood the content of the film and the personality of his character better than any other member of the cast I felt. I also loved Rinko Kikuchi, who played the witch, she was wonderful and you could see her enjoying the sheer unadulterated malice this role had to offer.

The pacing of this film could have been done better, it was the type of film that you could miss many scenes and still manage to pick up what had transpired easily. The movie also fell to a very dull tone consistently which wasn't the best for something that had so much potential.

Anyone who came to see Rick Genest, the tattooed Foreman on all the posters, expect to be sorely disappointed cause he's barely there for a minute. Ko Shibasaki, who played Mika, was the most generic damsel in distress I ever saw which grew tiresome. Tadanobu Asano, who played Lord Kira, was also one of the worst antagonist's of my 2014 viewing. The biggest disappointment was Keanu Reeves, who played Kai, he never once attempted to portray any real form of emotion or facial expression or tone in his voice and is one of the biggest deadpan performances I've seen since Liam Neeson in Star Wars.