typical Hollywood epic

Rating: 6/10 (5 July 2004)

This is a typical Hollywood epic: high on visuality, low on novelty. The basic plot is utterly predictable: white man goes to conquer savage backward natives, falls in love with their way of life (and one of their women too) and repents and decides to adopt their way of life. Now where have we seen that plot before?
On the good side, this movie is extremely good as a DVD, the photography is stunning, and the audio uses the full range of Dolby Digital sound effects. Also the DVD shows how much attention to detail the filmmakers paid to making sure that all of the weapons used in the movie were authentic looking and relevant. They made sure the Japanese soldiers used authentic rifles of that era, the Samurai used authentic Samurai weapons, and the Ninjas used Ninja weapons.
Too bad they didn't pay as much attention to the historical context though. They made it look like the Samurai were some backwards peasants attempting to maintain a agrarian way of life -- equivalent to some native American tribes. But the DVD itself shows up its own flaws: one of the features in the extra features is a documentary showing the historical accuracy of this film and it wasn't too good. The Samurai, far from being peasant villagers, were detested and feared by the general population, and their rebellion wasn't about maintaining their old ways of life but about maintaining their political clout within the empire which was waning.
Watch the movie for its special effects, but it's not much of a story. I'll give it a 6 out of 10 ranking.