47 Ronin, the film that director Carl Rinsch referred to as “Kurosawa on meth,” has had a long and difficult journey to the big screen. Beginning all the way back in 2011, the 3D samurai flick has gone through script difficulties and a changing release date, only to hit the Internet with a few trailers that were, shall we say, less than impressive. With its ultimate release only a month away, 47 Ronin is now ramping up the promo campaign, hitting us with two new clips of monsters, baddies and Keanu Reeves.
The film tells the story of 47 masterless samurai plotting their revenge on a court official who caused their master to commit ritual suicide a year before. They ask for the help of Kai (Reeves), who turns out to be the One…sorry, wrong movie. But 47 Ronin does seem to have an odd resemblance to almost every action film that Reeves has made since The Matrix. Will these new clips convince us that this is not Neo Goes To Japan? Let’s find out!
The first clip brings us Rinko Kikuchi (Pacific Rim) getting a bit creepy in an evil ritual. Muttering about “rivers of blood,” “mountains of corpses,” and the fulfillment of desires, she creates a nasty little spider in a somewhat roundabout away. Despite the somewhat cliched dialogue that Kikuchi is spouting right here, this is one of the more interesting scenes we’ve seen from 47 Ronin. So it is with a slightly heightened level of interest that I go into the second clip, which unfortunately does not fulfill the promise of the first.
We have presumably the first appearance of Keanu Reeves’ character Kai, a ‘half-breed’ doing battle with what I can only assume is a troll-like escapee from Zack Snyder’s 300. If my interest was piqued with Kikuchi’s scene, it has now dipped a bit with this terrible CGI sequence.
But do not take my word on this one; watch the clips for yourself and then let us know what you think.
Are you going to pay to see 47 Ronin on Christmas Day? Let us know.
