47 RONIN is a tale inspired
by the true story of how 47
ronin planned two years to avenge the death of their lord who died at the
treachery of another lord in the age of the samurai in Japan. It has been adapted before into movies and
plays and now Universal Pictures has made their mark with their version which
is a big budget experiment that didn’t fantasy creatures and CGI landscapes in
addition to finding a weak excuse to explain why Keanu Reeves is supposed to be
at the center of this revenge plot as a half breed named Kai. Kai and
46 ronin put together a plot in
short fashion after Kai is put into slavery and the lead Japanese ronin is
thrown in a pit for a year after their lord commits seppuku due to the treachery
laid by a witch who can shape shift into a white fox and a dragon while also
being able to manipulate her hair to use chop sticks (and look damn evil sexy
in green satin robes and messy bed head hair).
I enjoyed 47 RONIN to an extent
even though I realize it has
to be one of the most awesome bad big budget movies of the year while writing
this review. Did they really need
fantasy elements to tell the tale of 47 RONIN?
No. Did they need to spend $175
million to $225 million to make this CGI overspend of awesome bad movie? No.
Should they have worked Keanu Reeves better into the plot instead of the
standard we think he is a demon that the samurai think is bad luck until we
really need him to avenge the death of our lord by assassinating evil Lord
Kira? No. Did Rinko Kinkuchi
look really sexy as the
evil witch and seem to really enjoy it?
Yes, you bet her ass she did.
Should they have got a different director for this movie and scaled back
on the massive budget before even filming it?
Yes. Did they get Japanese culture
and the code of the samurai correct? Yes.
They even stay with the ending of the true
tale. Maybe they should have got the
director of 13 ASSASSINS to direct it instead and you should check out the plot
and execution of 13 ASSASSINS to see how the revenge plot by ronin plays out
much better than 47 RONIN. Instead you
have an awesome bad movie with well executed fight scenes and some cool visual
eye candy where they decided not to get a really great script for it. Wait
to rent it or buy it. Skip the theater unless you want a movie to
make fun of. Better luck next time,
Keanu. Better luck with the next film,
Universal Pictures.
This DVD review is (c)12-27-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted
without permission. Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com
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