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Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Admirable film.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The laws of commercial success or failure are complicated. '47 Ronin' is a film that failed completely at the box office and is considered one of the biggest losers of the Universal Studios in the current decade, despite of belonging to a popular genre (fantasy action movie) and despite having Keanu Reeves as lead actor. I actually liked the film, and some of the reasons may be the same that let to its commercial disaster.'47 Ronin' is based on an 18th century historical event which took place in a Japan led by the shoguns who decided to close its gates and shores to foreigners and all but cut the ties with the external world. It's a bloody story of revenge and sacrifice that raises issues of honor, tradition, and respect for authority very close to the essence of the Japanese soul. The story was taken over by oral and written literature and later by cinema, with a romantic intrigue of impossible love being added among other. The approach in telling the story and the perspective taken by the writer or film director tells a lot about the way tradition and the whole era of the shogunate are being perceived. I can understand that Japanese viewers may dislike the Hollywoodization of the story. Script writer Chris Morgan and film director Carl Rinsch have taken the Japanese story into the territory of fantasy action movies. Feudal Japan is in their vision a land populated by spirits of the forest, dragons and witches. It's pure entertainment, and this is the main angle this film needs to be judged from.I found the result more than satisfying in the limits of its genre. The film is spoken in English, but I guess it would have had no chances otherwise in the American cinema theaters. The majority of the acting team is composed of Japanese actors, some of them well-known in Hollywood and they all do a fine job: Hiroyuki Sanada is the noble commander of the samurais revenging their murdered and dishonored master, Hiroyuki Sanada represents the dark side oponent, Ko Shibasaki gathers beauty and delicacy for the lead feminine role, while Rinko Kikuchi is best in the feminine role of a witch with transcending powers. In order to match the Caucasian physiognomy of Keanu Reeves the authors of the script had to invent a biography of a mixed race cavalier who did not appear in the original story. The role will not be remembered as a peak of his acting career, but he did not do less or worse than many other lead stars in action movies. Cinematography is beautiful, costumes are colorful and expressive, and the action scenes are well choreographed. '47 Ronin' is a well made action movie which succeeds to be true to the essence of the story despite the liberties taken by the Hollywood adaptation of the story. It may lack authenticity, but purist can always find on youTube the Japanese film with the same name made in 1941. It is all spoken in Japanese (with subtitles) and it lasts longer than 3 and half hours.

Good but the real story of 47 ronin as it happened in history is not represented in this movie. Kira who was the shogun's manner instructor didn't get the customary bribe, so he didn't teach Asano the proper way to greet the Shogun in the actual story, and was humiliated for improper greeting of shogun which enraged him to draw a sword against Kira in the castle which was crime punishable by death. Ooishi and 47 ronin who lost their master swore vengeance on Kira, and that was the story of 47 ronin. Here the story is more like a fantasy. Since the story here is an American original, this review is for an American fiction movie. It's kind of a bastardization of how samurai lived in their days, and creating good action movie. As such, movie is of good quality, and doesn't disappoint. While some of the premise seems ridiculous to the ones versed in the way of samurai, that is forgiven as ignorance towards the true culture of the samurai. Some American movie has done a better job in this area (like the Last Samurai ),this is an acceptable and interesting version of 47 ronin.

"My father taught me this world was only a preparation for the next, that all we can ask is that we leave it having loved and being loved."For someone whose favourite movie is 'The Last Samurai', I thought I would very much enjoy this movie. I was wrong. It's actually a very dull action movie for 13 years and under who may have also enjoyed 'The Hobbit 3'. It's pretty basic. Samurai (oh, sorry - 'Ronin') argue, get into fight, lose fight, try again, get a sacred weapon, lose fight, win fight. That's pretty much it. The mystical aspects in the movie felt out of place and unnecessary. The CGI seemed cheap and needless. If the story was about Ronin returning to save their homeland, why add in ridiculous magic creatures? Now, I'm not into the "if we have a Japanese movie, we HAVE to have a Japanese protagonist", as I loved the Last Samurai, which had Tom Cruise as the lead, but in that movie, it made sense. It was part of the plot. A Western man learns Japanese ways. Yet in '47 Ronin', there's no good reason for a non-Japanese lead actor. So Keanu Reaves just should have been replaced.The ending, as it was perhaps the only unique aspect of this movie, felt out of place. Won't say what happened, but let's say that the entire movie was not a gritty movie, but it had an out-of- place gritty ending. Even if children enjoyed this movie, they wouldn't enjoy the ending, thus they removed their only potential fan-base. Overall, a bad imitation of 'The Last Samurai' that just doesn't work. It didn't feel very Japanese at all to be honest. If you really want to watch a samurai movie, you should watch it, but leave your mind behind, because it's basically your unintelligent action movie.

I haven't heard of the 47 Ronin story this was based on, but given it's reception and it's failure at the box office, I might want to do some research when I have a chance. I mean, the trailers looked great and exciting for the most part, but unfortunately, Universal Pictures didn't realize that the marketing for the film wasn't that good. Not to mention that it came out the same month as The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which garnered more attention There are some good things about the film. The acting is fine for the most part. Keanu Reeves from The Matrix, Rinko Kikuchi from Pacific Rim, and everyone else involved did their best. The costumes are nice and there are some nice details, but there two of the best things about this film. Ilan Eshkeri, the guy who composed the score for Stardust, does a great job with his music here, using authentic Japanese violins, gives some scope to the film, and some really neat action cues. And then there's the visuals. John Mathieson, who did the cinematography for Ridley Scott's films including Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, and Robin Hood, creates some of the best visuals for a live-action feature film. The landscapes, the forests, the mountains, and the medieval-like Japanese setting has some great detail. Oh, and the special effects are really neat too especially the dragon. Kudos to that.And now for the bad parts. I understand that it tries to be accurate to the historical event this was based on, but the only problem is, it takes itself way too seriously. The script is really stale, the dialog is really clichéd, the characters are one-dimensional and are really undeveloped, the writing is really terrible, and the pacing is really boring. Which is a shame, because the money for the production design was well-spent.Overall, 47 Ronin isn't exactly a terrible movie. It's really beautiful in it's production design, but it could've been so much better if they gave more believability to the characters and story. It's sad to say that this receives a thumbs down from me. :(