47 Ronin

For an action fantasy featuring ogre fights, mass seppuku, ghost spiders and a dragon-witch attack, 47 Ronin is remarkably dull and uneventful. Some blame belongs to first-time director Carl Rinsch, a veteran of commercials and music videos who seems ignorant of how spatial logic and pace apply to narrative filmmaking. Another culprit is the garbled screenplay from Hossein Amini and Chris Morgan, which reinvents the Japanese legend of fallen samurais avenging their master's death as a 300-lite green-screen epic. And, of course, there is Keanu Reeves as Kai, a “half-breed” orphan who may possess magical powers, but most definitely does not possess the power to convey emotions with his face or voice. That's a problem, since the story's emotional tug is rooted in Kai's lifelong love for the master's daughter, and Reeves delivers heart-bearing dialogue with the bland formality of a foreign dignitary.