Saturday, December 28, 2013

47 Ronin (20313): Review

I have been looking forward to the new Keanu Reeves movie 47 Ronin but I wasn't sure what to expect or if it was any good and I am happy to say that it was a good movie that I enjoyed watching.  It is a Samurai honor movie with a Japanese film feel but overall the movie was in English so it inst only for the die hard fan. This movie is for people who like action movies that are not all explosions and gun fights because this movie is at a slower pace and the action sequences are more Medieval in types of fighting.
47 Ronin is a movie that starts Keanu Reeves as Kai, a boy who escaped the evil of the Forrest as a young man but was treated as an outsider by the local Samurai because his father was an Englishman and that he is believed to have demon in him.  He is taken in by the Lord Asano, played by Min Tanaka, and befriends his daughter Mika, played by Ko Shibasaki.  When rival Lord Kira, played by Tadanobu Asano, arrives to stay with Lord Asano and have their Samurai compete, Kira causes the death of Asano with the help of his witch, played by Rinko Kikuchi.  After the death of this Master the now Ronin (Samurai who no longer have a master) lead by Oishi, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, proclaim they will avenge their fallen master.  A year later, Oishi seeks the help of Kai and the scattered Ronin's help to save princess Mika from being forced to marry Lord Kira and succeed in avenging their fallen master and demonstrate the honor of their Samurai vows.
All in all the plot of this movie is very simple and the story line pretty obvious how this movie was put together and paced was done really well.  I saw this movie in 3D but I do not think it was at all necessary (I only saw it in 3D was I saw it late at night and there were no more 2D showing of it).  The 3D added some dimension to the landscapes, which were gorgeous to look at, and it did the use of 3D that I love the most which is snow fall, but overall it was unnecessary and didn't really add to the overall experience.  I really liked how they used CG in this movie as it fit in with everything that was going on and worked seamlessly.  The only thing that I found distracting was the use of the witch's hair but that wasn't the CG but the concept itself.  I saw why they did it, as they had the tentacle things on the witch when she was in dragon form, but i still think it was weird.
The overall acting of the movie was high in the emoting but as there wasn't too much brooding it worked.  Also with the slower pace of the overall movie and the sweeping scenes, everything worked together. I liked the casting of the movie, but with Keanu Reeves in a leading role people who don't like Keanu Reeves will probably continue to complain about him, I liked his chemistry with the other characters and I think everyone fit the aspects of their characters.
Like I said, I enjoyed this movie and I would defiantly go see it again, when movies have really beatify cinematography and use of CG mixed in with everything, I love to go back and pay more attention to the background when I am not so focused on the story and what is going to happen next.

My Rating: 2+

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