A last stand for the ages

Rating: 7/10 (6 August 2019)

Tom Cruise is your haunted veteran who finds himself fighting a whole new civil war in the Far East; and if you want a crash course in what makes the samurai so damn cool, then this will slake that thirst. It also promises at least one epic battle scene, and surely delivers on that note as well.
But I appreciated this movie far more during the quiet moments, when Cruise is held captive by his enemies and forced to learn about the samurai ways. It's his scenes with Ken Watanabe that are really worth the price of admission. They're heartfelt as the two warriors learn to appreciate the simple act of conversation.
It's brutal, it's violent, but also just as beautiful as the scenery.