Shoddy and unfaithful star 'vehicle'

Rating: 2/10 (4 September 2004)

My wife and I could barely stand to watch this shoddy film. If we hadn't paid good money already, I'm sure we wouldn've walked out. I alternated between gritting our teeth during the movie, laughing at parts there were supposed to be dramatic, and otherwise being bored and disappointed to tears.
In short, I was angry to see what they did with one of my favorite theatrical genres in this movie.
There are multiple reasons for that. 1) This movie was an obvious star vehicle for Tom Cruise. Don't get me wrong, I generally like Cruise and his movies, but you can't sacrifice story and authentic historical research just to showcase one actor. Well you can, but it doesn't make for a good movie imo. The movie spent way too much time on Cruise and not enough on making an actual movie. Some people have compared this movie to "Dances with wolves", a good movie, but Last Samurai didn't have time to deal with both a similar story and the actual rebellion/westernization of Japan. Obviouslly Cruise's screen time won out.
2) Complete disregard for history. Certainly Commodore Perry opened Japan to international trade and western technology, but at no point were American forces on Japanese soil in any significant numbers after Perry. And they most certainly did not train Japanese soldiers.
3) Story. There is a wealth of background available on the Satsuma rebellion that could have been utilized in this film. I was hoping that the film would have delved into this as a central theme, but nothing more than the bare essentials (samurai rebel against westernizing!) was used. Pathetic.
So we have a camera perpetually focused on Cruise, a trashing of history, and little to zero story. Now add in some completely unbelievable characterizations and stereotyping of certain portions of Japanese culture and behaviour without regard to the whole society and you have a film unworthy of the money and acclaim it has garnered. Go rent "Seven Samurai", or nearly anything by Kurosawa for that matter, and see a real Samurai movie.
I gave this movie 3/10 only because of Ken Watanabe's acting and some of the cinematography. Even the battles and use of extras or supporting characters was so pitiful because of poor writing.