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(film review) - 47 Ronin

He has been missing for a little bit, but he is now back. Well I say missing, but what was the last film you remember Keanu Reeves doing? I'll give you a moment. Right, for me it was Street Kings, a film I didn't get to see but if I have a moment today, I will try and watch that tonight.

Keanu Reeves is one of a few talented actors who people say he is wooden, but he is quite versatile in my opinion. No, not all of his films have been well received, but Keanu has a fan base who are loyal to him and for me, I would say this; If a Keanu film is out, I wouldn't care about it much, but I would be intrigued and want to watch it. I wouldn't go as far as saying that he is a great actor, but he is a very competent actor who does come across wooden, dry and even monotone and dreary, but the films he choose always seem to "suit" his personality.

47 Ronin to me was a good film, but was lacking a little. I'll go into that later.

Kai (Keanu Reeves) is a child without parents grown up in the woods in which he escapes and joins a group of Ronin. Constantly referred to as half-breed and treated differently to the citizens within the town, Kai is always kept as an outsider and plays a inevitable part in having everyone banished from their town while he gets placed into slavery. Kuranosuke Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada), a Samurai from the Ronin seeks revenge for his banishment and seeks the help of the 46 Ronin with Kai being the 47th. Together they head back to their town to reclaim the land which was once theirs.

There isn't anything much more to the story (lacking), so this is it in a nutshell. Nothing special and very old school and traditional. However, where i said the film was good - visually, story, acting, pacing, everything, for me everything about the film was good although there was a few moments where I thought, "so what happened to that guy?", or "what is happening here?", but then my biggest fault with the film was the length of the film and the action. The film isn't about Keanu Reeves' character at all, he was just an helping hand or aid. The film was very generic and lacking. I felt a lot more could have been done with the film. Maybe the pacing was bad because they could have done soo much more with the story but it didn't offer anything more than what has already been done with a Japanese fantasy adventure. While I was satisfied when the film finished, I didn't leave thinking, "wow, great film" like after i viewed the Desolation of Smaug. I did feel incomplete thinking, maybe Keanu should have been able to do more with his character because from what his character could do, wasn't a lot. Maybe there should have been more fight scenes or epic battles. Maybe the story should have been fully fleshed out and made it bit more intricate other than being a simple and basic story. Maybe if there were a couple of unexpected twists in it, then yes, maybe this film would have been much better rather than just good.

I wouldn't rush to see this in the cinema, unless you like Keanu Reeves, but this film looks like the "better" film out of the two he has out for 2013, the other being, Man of Tai Chi.

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