Rurouni Kenshin: The Movie

Let me start first by complimenting several things. This movie was, frankly, beautifully drawn. Every shot was full of such amazing detail that at times it became difficult to tell the difference between the animated and the actual footage that appears randomly throughout the film.

The sword fighting was very cool as well.

And that's about all I can say that is positive about "Samurai X". I watched the English-dubbed version, something I would never do normally except a friend of mine who loved the movie insisted. I feel that they may have hired some of the worst voice actors ever to speak these lines. Almost anything said by the main character came off as sounding like he was an idiot or reading off a page. It wasn't just Kenshin who suffered from this ailment. It seemed that many of the characters could not speak a believable sentence if their lives depended on it.

The characters themselves were another huge problem. With Kenshin I just couldn't buy his motives. The movie went on and on and on trying to prove to him that killing was not the way to do things. He continues to think this way throughout, however, and his utter lack of character development made his "suck"-meter inflate beyond all expectations.

The cast seemed to leave suddenly at random points. For example his "mentor" who we see for a mere 5 minutes, vanishes entirely from the story. Why didn't Kenshin get a better character? Because he, as well as everyone else, was horribly underdeveloped. It ended up that I couldn't care who lived and died and spent much of my time awaiting the next sword fight.

The fighting was frequent and bloody, a good combination for a movie whose script was rotten. This and the amazing imagery was "Samurai X"'s saving graces because it was severely lacking in so many parts. The story was simple, and simply predictable, another one of the things in the movie that revolted me.

I wish that the talented artists who brought this alive could apply their skill to something worthwhile, such as a sequel to "Noir"...