Marina Antunes [Celluloid 07.24.13] action fantasy samurai adventure



There has been so much trouble with 47 Ronin, the Keanu Reeves and Hiroyuki Sanada starring samurai epic, that for a while there it looked like the movie might never see the light of day but when a studio dumps a rumoured $225 million dollars into a production, every attempt is made to salvage it.

It was reported last year, after the movie's November 2012 release date was pushed forward indefinitely, that Universal had fired director Carl Rinsch and taken over editing duties changing dialogue, characters and story points. Word is that Rinsch couldn't handle duties on such a large project; undoubtedly, the studios will never learn.


It's been mostly quiet out of the 47 Ronin camp for months and outside of a new release date, we haven't seen much from the movie until today when a fancy trailer has arrived and it's... kind of familiar.

The story, about a group of 47 Ronin who seek vengeance for their master's murder, led by none other than Reeves, sounds great but the movie looks like any typical fantasy adventure, complete with giant monsters and unsightly evil beings, ghosts, dark visuals and lots of action. It's a beautiful looking trailer but one that doesn't really inspire great awe. I'm a bit nervous about the entire thing, seems a little too Pirates of the Caribbean with Samurai but I'm curious to see what sort of mess or success 47 Ronin ends up being.

47 Ronin opens December 25.

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G (8 years ago) Reply

Yup, this looks...like a fantasy blockbuster with a Japanese coating. OK but no more.

Very different from the fun Chris Morgan draft of the script I read last year.

wtf (8 years ago) Reply

if his fightscenes are as bad as in man of tai chi then the whole movie is not worth watching. man was i dissapointed by his fighting style. so bad.

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