Trailer Trashin’: Keanu Reeves Leads Japanese Warriors in 47 Ronin

spent a lot of time at the movies this past weekend. On Friday, I finally got to see Pacific Rim again, and it was just as much fun seeing it a second time. And on Sunday, I saw The Conjuring with a friend, and while I’m certainly not an authority of any kind on horror films, I thought it was quite good. We’re almost to the beginning of August, and the summer movie season will be starting to wind down. And speaking of looking beyond summer, this week’s Trailer Trashin’ examines our first look at this Christmas’ long-delayed fantasy/action film 47 Ronin.

Premise: The outcast Kai (Keanu Reeves) joins a group of Ronin, led by Kuranosuke Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada), who seek vengeance on Lord Kira (Tadanobu Asano), who killed their master and banished the group. The Ronin embark on a journey whose challenges would defeat most warriors.

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My take: One of the interesting things that we’ve seen at the movies this year is no less than three long-delayed, notoriously troubled film productions finally reaching our screens. Late June saw the release of World War Z, a film whose troubles included an entirely new ending having to be written and shot, but ultimately was fairly well-received when it came out. One of the big Fourth of July releases was The Lone Ranger, which suffered from huge cost overruns and having its production shut down by the studio, and was reviled by critics and largely rejected by audiences when it opened. This Christmas will see the third film of this inglorious trifecta – 47 Ronin, a heavily fictionalized account of a real-life story from early 18^th-century Japan about a group of samurai who avenged the murder of their master. The film’s production has not gone smoothly in any sense, with the reports ranging from it going over-budget to the studio taking control away from director Carl Rinsch in post-production. It was originally set for release on November 21, 2012, moved to February 8, 2013, and finally set for December 25, 2013. With all that in mind, the first trailer for 47 Ronin has finally arrived, and we can decide for ourselves whether it looks like they’ve been able to salvage something from all this mess. Personally, while I definitely think some of the imagery here is cool, I have a sinking feeling that the final film isn’t going to be very good.

In terms of the cast, the big focus is on Keanu Reeves as Kai, a half-Japanese, half-British outcast who joins the Ronin in their quest for revenge. The character of Kai was created for the film, and is not part of the original tale of the forty-seven Ronin. I know a lot of people like to make fun of Reeves, and I’ve certainly done my share of that, but I have really liked some of his films, mainly Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), Speed (1994), and The Matrix (1999), and it’s cool to see him in another action film, which he hasn’t done since The Matrix Revolutions (2003). But the character of Kai is also my biggest gripe with the film, which I’ll get into later in this column. We also see Hiroyuki Sanada, who most recently was in The Wolverine, as Kuranosuke Oishi, the leader of the Ronin; Sanada is a good actor, and it’s nice to see him getting more work on this side of the Pacific. Strangely, I don’t think we get to see Tadanobu Asano, best known stateside as Hogun the Grim in Thor (2011), as Lord Kira, the main villain; hopefully, he’ll show up in the next trailer. Rinko Kikuchi, who we just saw recently in Pacific Rim, plays Mizuki, a woman who serves Lord Kira; I’m assuming Mizuki is the woman in green with mismatched eyes who we see hanging upside-down and turning into a dragon. If nothing else, it should be interesting to see Kikuchi play a villainous character. We get a few looks as Kou Shibasaki, who I believe is making her English-language debut here, as Mika, the daughter of the Ronins’ slain master and Kai’s love interest, but it’s not clear how big of a role she’ll have. Unfortunately not seen here is Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as the Shogun; Tagawa has been a favorite character actor of mine ever since I saw him as Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat (1995), and he’s someone whom I’m always happy to see getting work.

I have to say, I liked the imagery and visuals on display here a lot more than I was expecting. In many ways, what we see here really reminds me of the old Ray Harryhausen fantasy films like The 7^th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and Jason and the Argonauts (1963), which is definitely a good thing in my book. The mythical creatures and monsters we see here – the chain-wielding giant, the forest ghosts, the horned beast, and the dragon Mizuki turns into – are all quite cool, especially because I didn’t know the film was going that far into outright fantasy before watching this trailer. I also think that the action, which mainly seems to consist of all manner of sword-fights, looks like it could be pretty good. If nothing else, I think we can assume the film will be impressive on a visual level.

But as I mentioned earlier, my biggest issue has to do with Keanu Reeves’ character of Kai, and the fact that the filmmakers and studio thought it was necessary to add a lead character played by a Western actor in this story. How sad is it that, in 2013, Hollywood still thinks that American audiences won’t go to a movie without a white lead character, and how sad is it that we haven’t done enough to disabuse them of that notion? Yes, Keanu Reeves does have some Asian ancestry – his father was partially of Chinese descent, along with Native Hawaiian, English, Irish, and Portugese – but he’s still seen as white by pretty much everyone. Admittedly, Kai is supposed to be mixed-race and is referred to as a “half-breed,” so this isn’t as immediately, horrifying wrong as Johnny Depp playing Tonto in The Lone Ranger, but it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and brings to mind the bad old days of the helpless natives needing to be saved by the Caucasian hero. Other than that issue, I was really struck by how clunky and clichéd some of the dialogue in this trailer sounded. For any Hollywood screenwriters who might be reading this – thanks, by the way, if you are reading this – please don’t have the line “I’m not afraid of you” be followed by “You should be,” because we’ve all heard it in enough films to last us the rest of our lives.

I really wish I didn’t feel as down on this as I do. The imagery is great, the cast is good, and I’ve always loved these kind of swords-and-sorcery fantasy movies, so in many ways, 47 Ronin should be right up my alley. But my issues with the writing and Hollywood’s apparent inability to let this Japanese story just be about Japanese characters are causing me to really temper my expectations. If the movie turns out okay when it’s finally released, I will gladly eat my words and go see it. But for the moment, I think I might wait to check out 47 Ronin when it’s on Blu-ray.