Sunday, April 6, 2014

Ronin 47

Why are time honored actors constantly creating worse and worse box office hits, such as Ronin 47 and Arnolds new movie, The Last Stand?
It has been awhile since I have seen my last movie, so I thought that I should venture to the movie theater and see what’s new.  I had seen trailers advertising the new Keanu reeves movie, 47 ronin recently, so I thought that I should go and watch it. But how does this stack up to his older movies that were oh so good?
The movie is loosely based on an old Japanese story about a king who was shamed by another ruler, and forced to kill himself to redeem his honor.  When the king died, his samurais became ronin which kind of make them freelance samurais. They all banded together and took revenge on the “bad” king to reclaim their honor. And this is where the similarities end with the original tale and the movie. Keanu plays Kai, an outcast born of white descent that was found in a forest by the king Ashono and taken back to his land. There, he was raised like his son, although he was always treated differently by the villagers because of his race.
Fast forwarding to his adult years, Kai still lives as an outcast of society, living in the outskirts of town. He is perked up by the fact that the famous shogun is coming to his village to host a tournament between samurai against villages.   Panic strikes as Kai has to don the samurai gear, while breaking his code, because the fighter for his village was bewitched by Lord Kiras mistress. Lord Kira is the leader of an opposing town and wants to win the tournament and steal the heart of Ashonos daughter. Kai fights well, but is beaten by his opponent, who also knocks off his mask to reveal his face. He is brutally beaten, while lord Kira reigns victorious. Later that same night he sends his mistress once again to bewitch the king into thinking that Kira was attacking his daughter. He runs into his room and almost kills him before the guards find them. Ashono is punished by having to kill himself, and the kingdom falls into ruins by lord Kiras hand.
This is where I’m going to stop the review so I don’t spoil it for any of you. I enjoyed the movie greatly and hope that you will as well. The actors take their roles quite seriously, and it shows with great performances.  The story is action packed and seems to always have something interesting going on. The CG is pretty good, with it being used in many scenes to really make them stand out.  Overall I think that Reeves shines in his role and that this movie is a definite must see.




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