When a group of ronin, also known as masterless samurai, are forced to be banished from their home by the ruthless Lord Kira who managed to frame their lord into seppuku, they reunite a year later in an attempt to exact revenge, despite the Shogun's demands to not seek revenge. That's the basic summary of the story, which was based on a true-life event. This film however is very loosely based on that event though as they shoved in fantasy elements such as a villainous witch, beasts, dragons, weird lizard demon men, etc. The problem of the story is the overuse of the fantasy elements, which was mainly Universal's decision to include. I understand that they wanted to have a much more different take on the story and include Japanese folklore into the story, but it gets way too silly in my opinion. The only fantasy element I liked in the film was the Tengu forest and the need to get swords from this mythical place. Outside of that, they really needed to tone down the fantasy elements and keep the film more gritty. Another problem with the story is the inclusion of the half-breed, Kai. We will get over him in a bit, but the issue is that his inclusion felt unnecessary in the story. The tone at the very least keeps itself serious and not over-the-top, outside of the fantasy elements.
Let's go over the elephant in the room, Keanu Reeves, who is practically the only white guy in the film. Kai is a mysterious half-breed who has been trained to fight by the Tengu and falls in love with his lord's daughter. Reeves is not a bad actors, but Kai is pretty forgettable. Not only does the film not really make him the main character of the story, but his inclusion just asks more questions than answers. Like, if he's supposed to be this ultimate killer, why does he always hold back until he needs to fight the witch? The romance between him and Mika is so underdeveloped that you can tell that this was forced by some braindead executive. Kai's only purpose was to get American audiences to watch the film, which clearly didn't help out given this film's status as a box-office bomb. The cast for the most part though is good. Oishi, Lord Asano, and the army of ronin are the best characters as they felt the most engaging and developed. Oishi is practically the main character of the film and goes through much more development and struggle than Kai does. Mika was completely forgettable as she's just the helpless princess who is forced to marry the villain. A cliched, been there, done that role. Lord Kira isn't a threatening villain, but his actor is just chewing up the scenery and almost emulates the charisma of Shang Tsung from the "Mortal Kombat" movie. A problem with the cast is that because the majority are Japanese actors, their English dialogue isn't exactly the best, with the worst offender being the actress of the witch. Once again, not only do I not like the inclusion of the witch character, but her line delivery is just awful to say the least. Regardless, you can tell that the majority of the cast, regardless of their good or bad performances. I also want to point out wasted potential on the few characters you see on the poster. The big, silver samurai villain is cool, but the film teases this big battle only for him to get killed by some explosion that makes his identity more confusing. Like, was he a human, monster, or some witchcraft as he just simply disintegrates. Also, don't ask me why Rick Genest also known as "Zombie Boy" is on the poster. He only shows up for like five seconds and that's it. I heard that his role was practically cut because Universal wanted more scenes of Kai, which is a shame since I was very interested in what role the character played.
The film was directed by Carl Rinsch. Who is that, you ask? Literally some random guy. This was his first and only feature film he has ever made and completely vanished from the industry. Although you might think that Rinsch must be a terrible director for his inexperience, but surprisingly, he did a decent job. The best thing about the film and where you can tell where the money went towards is the look of the film. From the sets to the production design to the costumes to the locations, it's a visually-pleasing film and one with excellent lighting to boot to make these sets and locations stand out. This is also helped out by the cinematography of John Mathieson. The CGI is also decent. Sure, I don't like the fantasy elements to begin with, but they for the most part look good enough to fit in that world. The establishing shots of the cities and locations aren't real, but the CGI looks nice enough to not put too much attention on. The score by Ilan Eshkeri is a mixed bag in my opinion. The score is nowhere near bad, but it doesn't completely fit the film and the setting. If it was more traditional and Japanese-like, it would be perfect. However, the choice to go for a more orchestrated approach makes the score hard to stand out by itself. The worst aspects of Rinsch's directing is the editing and action sequences. The editing by Stuart Baird is so choppy and ugly in the beginning of the film, but it does get better moving on. However, the issue is that there are plenty of cases where scenes should be cut or left on for longer. Scenes with Mika in particularly needed to be cut out mainly because any sense of thematic pay-off hinted at these scenes such as the bottle of poison, the blade, or the pondering of suicide never goes anywhere and just makes her character much weaker than ever. Lastly, there are the action sequences. They aren't terrible and there are some neat shots and bits on occasion, with the stealthy attack on Kira's fortress and the final duel of Oishi and Kira standing out the most. However, the action for the most part is just underwhelming. I feel that the action is missing a gritty, R-rating as the violence lacks a lot of impact in these scenes. The climax also felt pretty anti-climatic as the final battle just felt pretty short with barely any stakes. The PG-13 rating was holding the film's action a lot in my opinion. Despite this, Rinsch clearly put all of his effort in the visual aesthetic of the film, which does standout to say the least.
"47 Ronin" is a film that had the pieces to make a great film. From making a film on the real-life event itself, Japanese cast giving it their all and some characters being likeable and established, the visual design of the movie in general whether practical or digital, and some nice cinematography by Mathieson. However, Universal butchered the film with their unnecessary decisions. From the overused fantasy elements, Keanu Reeves's Kai as a whole, Mika and the witch being the worst characters in the film, Eshkeri's mismatched score, painful editing choices, and underwhelming action sequences that lack a lot of impact and violence that was clearly needed. There's no mystery why this became one of the more expensive box office bombs, but they could have improved the film if they removed Reeves and the fantasy elements. If the focus was entirely on Oishi and the band of ronin as they have to deal with an impossible mission and the destined fate they will have, it would be a much more powerful film that can blend both Hollywood and Japanese cinema to be a one-of-a-kind feature. The film that we were given instead though will remain one of the more forgettable box office bombs to date.
Verdict: 4/10. A visually pleasing film, but not much outside of it. Watch "Seven Samurai" instead.
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