47 Ronin, the film release at Christmas in 2013, was a "comic book" adaptation of the Chunsingura fable of ancient Japanese samurai who seek to avenge their deceased master. Though the film is quite enjoyable it suffers from the "John Carter effect" of over budgeted and over produced movies. The film is the directorial debut of Carl Rinsch who's inexperience is evident. The music by Ilan Eshkeri expertly guides you through the journey and helps to fill in any gaps in where the story doesn't communicate sufficiently. The story line is a bit ambitious and not controlled enough being a little too loose for a film that combines genres. It never quite decides what it wants to be. Nonetheless it is an enjoyable experience for early summer viewing.
The story of the 47 Ronin is fairly well known and has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times. As such it's not great surprise that someone tried to add a new spin or embellishment on the much told story. This adaptation adds a hard level of fantasy to the mix including mythical beasts, witches, and 'mystical sword play.' Though this addition in itself did not doom the film it was not done in a way that helps the film either. Audiences today have a hard enough time with fantasy or samurai genre films. Combining the two genres is like combining salt and chocolate for cookies. It can be done well, though is usually disastrous but even if it's good it will never be as popular as Thin Mints. Not to mention that a love story involving Keanu Reeve's character and the daughter of the befallen samurai master's daughter doesn't help keep things simple or concise either.
The idea certainly is a novel one and at times is worth the price of admission. The chase battle in the first act where the Ako Samurai attack a giant mythical lion-like creature is visually stunning despite the extensive CGI. The battle scene in the cave in the Tengu forest is the fantasy element at it's best in this film. It's also where the two genres combine the best because this is where the resolve, discipline and skill of Kai and the samurai leader Oishi are tested. Where the fantasy element betrays the film is with everything do with Mizuki, the witch character. The witch's role is ultimately negligible and Rinko Kikuchi fails to bring any depth or purpose to the character. The dragon fight between Mizuki and Kai in the third act should've focused on the skill of Kai instead of the magical potency of Mizuki.
Production on this film doomed it from ever having a chance of succeeding. With an atrociously large budget and a production time running close to five years there's no way this film was going to turn a profit. Films like John Carter, The Lone Ranger, R.I.P.D. etc. which have unrealistically large budgets are almost doomed to fail from the beginning. Add in a drawn out production schedule where much can change over time and you have a recipe for a disaster. This film also relied far too much on CGI. One of the greatest moments in the penultimate battle are when the samurai launch each other up a wall, hook a rope on to sentinel guards standing on top, steal their helmets and take their positions while other samurai pull the sentinels down off the wall, never alerting the audience viewing a performance to their infiltration (complete with some visually stunning practical fire effects from the performers). If the movie had spent more time with things like this instead of Mizuki's squid like witchiness it would have been a better movie, and far cheaper. Be wary of any film with a large enough budget that doesn't force the production team to be creative in their filming.
I've been harshly negative of this movie so far but do not mistake that for a complete dissatisfaction in the movie. I'm one of those rare breeds of Americans still left that enjoys a good fantasy film (extended editions of LOTR only!) and a good Samurai film (I own a 1960's production of this same story). The movie is enjoyable and contains all that you would expect from either genre including the fighting of mystical beasts, determined and resolute faithfulness of the samurai, and sword play which is popular everywhere. Though the movie is sometimes clouded by the love plot line with Kai it pays off at the end of the movie when all the samurai commit seppuku in the end.
If this film had someone on the production team, be it a producer or the director, who could have controlled the spending, picked a genre and stuck with it, kept a timely schedule, and tightened things up it would have been an excellent early summer movie. But instead it had none of these things and was released at Christmas time. At least harakiri isn't practiced in Hollywood.
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