47 Ronin
Had a bit of time on my hands so I walked down to the Alamo Drafthouse and saw 47 Ronin. It was... okay.
It really wants to be a sweeping Wuxia epic, and nothing is quite there for it. It tries really hard, but the cinematography and characterization just aren't quite there. There are some impressive pieces. There's a great piece where Oishi goes to free Kai from slavery on an island held by the Dutch that is really neat, but that's mostly because it feels like they snipped that part out of a Pirates of the Carribean movie, and its not particularly long either. Another part that I liked involved Kai and Oishi going into a temple held by Tengu to ask for swords to fight their enemy with. Of course, I was dissappointed when these Tengu are snake men, and not the long-nosed bird people I have previously seen depicted as Tengu in the past.
The characterization is weak. Almost all of the characterization goes to Keanu Reeves' Kai, and Reeves is not a strong enough actor to carry this movie on his own, as is basically asked of him. Kai is half Chinese, half European (English, I think they said), Kai was found as a teenager, living as a wild man in a haunted forest, and brought back to live on Lord Asano's estate. Only Asano and his daughter Mika think he amounts to anything at all, to the point where Oishi is saved from a rampaging beast early in the film and laments that its better to be killed by the beast than saved by a half-breed. He does repent for this later. Asano is well acted, but due to the nature of his role, that doesn't really amount to much. The villain, Lord Kira, is about as two dimensional as they come, a smirking, smug jackass who does what he does for no more than a naked lust for power. He's aided by Mizuki, a shape-shifting witch who is probably a Kitsune though the word is never actually used. She gives an utterly wretched performance, trying to be sensually evil but just comes off erratic and annoying.
Speaking of the witch, this movie is advertised very badly. They want you to think this is going to be a high-fantasy feudal epic, and it's not. Mizuki gets a few impressive effects scenes, Kai and the Tengu have a thing where they can blur themselves into their clothes to move really fast, and there's an appropriately Oriental Adventures-ish monster at the beginning, and that's basically it. Nobody else gets any impressive powers. They even set it up so they could have them; Kai explains that the Tengu swords are magical and that they would do different things depending on who wielded them, but nothing comes of it. The freaky-looking guy who is tattooed up like a skeleton? He's one of the sailors on the Dutch Island, he gets to be intimidating and then shoot at Kai and Oishi, and then they outrun him and escape. I don't think he even dies.
One thing they do manage, is to lay out the setting effectively. They emphasize how important ritual, tradition, and rules are in their society, to explain why they do things the way they do, and why they end the movie the way they do, which could be very strange in a less... rigorous culture like ours.
On the whole, I was pretty disappointed. I give it a C; If it looks interesting to you, and you can catch it for free, go for it. Otherwise, there are plenty of other movies about the 47 Ronin, I have to imagine that at least one is better than this one.
It really wants to be a sweeping Wuxia epic, and nothing is quite there for it. It tries really hard, but the cinematography and characterization just aren't quite there. There are some impressive pieces. There's a great piece where Oishi goes to free Kai from slavery on an island held by the Dutch that is really neat, but that's mostly because it feels like they snipped that part out of a Pirates of the Carribean movie, and its not particularly long either. Another part that I liked involved Kai and Oishi going into a temple held by Tengu to ask for swords to fight their enemy with. Of course, I was dissappointed when these Tengu are snake men, and not the long-nosed bird people I have previously seen depicted as Tengu in the past.
The characterization is weak. Almost all of the characterization goes to Keanu Reeves' Kai, and Reeves is not a strong enough actor to carry this movie on his own, as is basically asked of him. Kai is half Chinese, half European (English, I think they said), Kai was found as a teenager, living as a wild man in a haunted forest, and brought back to live on Lord Asano's estate. Only Asano and his daughter Mika think he amounts to anything at all, to the point where Oishi is saved from a rampaging beast early in the film and laments that its better to be killed by the beast than saved by a half-breed. He does repent for this later. Asano is well acted, but due to the nature of his role, that doesn't really amount to much. The villain, Lord Kira, is about as two dimensional as they come, a smirking, smug jackass who does what he does for no more than a naked lust for power. He's aided by Mizuki, a shape-shifting witch who is probably a Kitsune though the word is never actually used. She gives an utterly wretched performance, trying to be sensually evil but just comes off erratic and annoying.
Speaking of the witch, this movie is advertised very badly. They want you to think this is going to be a high-fantasy feudal epic, and it's not. Mizuki gets a few impressive effects scenes, Kai and the Tengu have a thing where they can blur themselves into their clothes to move really fast, and there's an appropriately Oriental Adventures-ish monster at the beginning, and that's basically it. Nobody else gets any impressive powers. They even set it up so they could have them; Kai explains that the Tengu swords are magical and that they would do different things depending on who wielded them, but nothing comes of it. The freaky-looking guy who is tattooed up like a skeleton? He's one of the sailors on the Dutch Island, he gets to be intimidating and then shoot at Kai and Oishi, and then they outrun him and escape. I don't think he even dies.
One thing they do manage, is to lay out the setting effectively. They emphasize how important ritual, tradition, and rules are in their society, to explain why they do things the way they do, and why they end the movie the way they do, which could be very strange in a less... rigorous culture like ours.
On the whole, I was pretty disappointed. I give it a C; If it looks interesting to you, and you can catch it for free, go for it. Otherwise, there are plenty of other movies about the 47 Ronin, I have to imagine that at least one is better than this one.