The Imaginos Movie Review: 47 Ronin (Potentially Spoiler-ish)

 Written by Joseph Young

 Edited by J. Albert Cain

A few weeks ago, I went to go see "47 Ronin" in theaters with a fellow imaginos member and thought this movie is sweet as hell,. 2 thumbs up! Then I went to go read the 313 year old true story that the movie was based off of.  I can honestly say that the movie held to its roots very well, though it did make some choices that ...let's say "color" the story a bit.  Because the story is true or mostly true in this case, there are few plot holes, if any, that I can find, though the changes that were made are something to talk about.

::Editor's Note: This is actually a hella spoiler-ific review. So yeah, beware if you want to see this movie in the near future and care about spoilers.::

One thing that this movie did very well is pull you into a fantasy rich version of the Tokugawa era of Japan; samurai, magic, and crazy awesome dragons, that sounds awesome already.

Kai, the main protagonist but not the focus of the film, is played by Keanu Reeves. This character was created for the film as a second class citizen who joins the ronin in their quest to honor Bushido (the way of the warrior) to the letter. This one character changes a lot about the story, but none of the plot, for example there is magic in the movie but it's very subtle.

 Another change the writers made has more to do with the times in which this movie came out in. This change doesn't effect the plot in any way and actually helps hold the story to its roots in a way, so in my opinion, it's not a spoiler, but if you want a warning there it is.

Jin Akanishi plays a young character that is killed in the story (in the story of the 47 this is merely a foot note and not central to the story) in the movie however he is granted immunity from punishment (not saying why because that would be a spoiler). I think the change was made because in today's culture, kids don't die on the big screen, but in books and stories it's "ok" apparently. 

I've seen some reviews that say that "47 Ronin" is a bit slow, I agree with this but it works with movie's pacing, when the film starts out, yes its going to be slow because you need build up to make a good story work well, however this movie did drag on a bit, to the point where this movie felt a lot longer then it actualy was.

Having said all this, I don't see a down side that is really going to bring my rating down.