Not a terrible film, but doesn't fulfill title of samurai (contains spoilers)

Rating: 5/10 (6 May 2004)

First off, this was not a terrible film. It was ok, and worth a watch. I would rate it a 6 overall, since it does have certain parts that are somewhat enjoyable. But, when comparing this to other worthy samurai films, such as Seven Samurai, Rashomon, or Ran, this movie clearly falls apart. The plot is one that isn't truly believable, not saying that all plots are, but for some reason much of what happened to me was predictable and cliched. When watching any number of scenes, you could predict word for word what Tom Cruise was going to say.
Now some may argue that the film is visually captivating. Maybe. It does have some scenes which are decent, but comparing this again to other color samurai movies, especially Ran, the images are weak and empty. Although flagging is done somewhat correctly on the warriors, this has absolutely no meaning for the viewers and thus is just another "cultural awe" of asian cultures that many will just look at and think to themselves, "strange".
The character development in this film was also a bit on the weak and unbelievable side. Tom Cruise starts out as a boozer, but then becomes a compassionate warrior, even though the only thing that has changed is that he is now a prisoner and eating rice. His character develops into something that fits with what american audiences want to see, not what may really happen and something that may be even more interesting.
Overall, this is still a better than average film, but I would never call this movie a classic nor even rank it with other worthy masterpieces of Akira Kurosawa. It is a good film to watch if you want a very americanized film of samurais, but definitely everyone who likes this films NEEDS to see Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai).