I was right, Cruise still can't act.

Rating: 6/10 (15 January 2004)

Whilst I wasn't dragged kicking and screaming to see the movie, I was reluctant to see it tonight. After searching IMDB and reading a few positive reviews, and the insistence of my friend that Tom was on the receiving end of some praise, I conceded and went to see it.
Dang - there goes $14 of my hard earned cash... Ultimately, I wasn't wrong. Cruise was wooden and unconvincing. I tried and *almost* felt emotional, but nope, the close up of his face wrecked that idea. I'd be interested to hear from people who speak fluent Japanese to see if his delivery of those lines were as stunted as most of his non-aggressive english ones. To cap it off, his closing line was delivered with more corn than the Corn-on-the-stick guy at the Rocks Market in Sydney.

Then again, there was a plenty of polenta sprinkled all over the movie. The digital special effects would have been impressive 5 years ago (although one of the brief aerial battle scenes wasn't bad), and some of the sets looked just plain fake. In terms of plot - it was Hollywood 101, but at the same time, given the whole package, it was palatable enough for a DVD rental - just not sure that I got value in my ticket this time round.

On the more positive side, I did like most of the battle and fight scenes - the subtle Manga influence of blood spraying around was well done, and actually added some character to the sequences. Cruise looked like he could fight too - he did a nice job of training himself for this movie.

Pity Â– I had hoped for more from this movie.