Devoid of action

Keanu Reeves coasts through this epic Samurai adventure but does the film need to commit seppuku (hara-kiri), or does it deserve the honour of wearing Samurai armour?

47 Ronin looked every bit like the epic eastern fantasy flick I’ve been waiting for since Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragonor Hero. It boasts a storyline loosely based on a real life group of avenging Samurai with some ogres, witches and dragons thrown in to boot. What could possibly go wrong?

Reeves is Kai, a white-mixed race outcast in his group of samurai; they constantly bully and harass him seeing him as a lesser person in a similar way to the disdain Hermione gets from her peers in Hogwarts. Luckily, Kai happens to be a trained killing machine with slight mystical powers who wins them over throughout the film and proves vital in thegroup’s quest to avenge the murder of their lord, an act that leaves them without a master, thus making them Ronin.

Reeves’ performance is largely effortless.He delivers his few lines with a completely unchanging facial expression and vocal tone during the entire movie, but he does exactly what his character is supposed to do. At times, it really does seem that Reeves’ thoughts are elsewhere and he has no idea about what’s going on around him.

Kai also struggles as a character becauseit’s unclear as to whether or not he’s supposed to be the central character.That’s because Reeves spends most of his screen-time sharing the limelight with Oishi, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, who is the leader of the Ronin. Oishi isarguably a more important character than Reeves’ Kai, which renders the whole‘Kai being different to the others’ storyline slightly null and void.

Sanada rounds out a very impressive cast of brilliant actors and actresses hailing from Japan and, for the most part, their performances are excellent. Kou Shibasaki, as the love interest and bereaved daughter in an arranged marriage she doesn’t want, is excellent, along with Jin Akanishi as Oishi’s son and Takato Tonemoto providing the laughs, and a moment of sadness as the ever-present, slightly rotund member of the group.

However, Rinko Kikuchi steals the show as the evil witch side-kick with different coloured eyes and the ability to transform into a fox and a dragon, amongst other things I’m sure. Her sinister throat slitting gesture matched with ‘goodbye’ was chilling. Her master, LordKira, played by Tadanobu Asano, also delivers a good performance as the murderous usurper.

Unfortunately, despite most of the admirable performances from all involved they are severely let down by the incredibly distracting over theatrical dialogue which is as poorly written as the film is stunning. I also got the impression that the native Japanese actors struggled with the English lines which resulted in them coming across as slightly wooden.

As I mentioned the film really is stunning,the caramel-hued feudal Japanese landscapes and the well-created CGI creatures are fantastic, it’s clear that most of the $175 million budget was spent on the film’s appearance. Also strong were the action sequences, which added to the already great aesthetics. I did think the film could have done with some more fight and action sequences as the finale with the 47 Ronin’s final stand was breathtakingly tense, but sadly they were brief.

The film is largely brilliant and joins the rest of the above average flicks of the same genre, but there are several things that got in the way of it blowing me away. Instead I left the screen with a sense of contentment at having not wasted two and a bit hours and wanting to be a Samurai. So, with that in mind, I guess the film has done its job and doesn’t deserve to fall on its own sword just yet.

*Showing in Cineco, Saar, Seef I