User reviews

This should not be a "sequel" at all, it is not worthy in the slightest. 47 Ronin was a great film, this 'sequel' is a disservice. Starship Troopers 2 was a better sequel to the original than this -- and thats not saying much.

Blade is totally uninspiring, boring, not sure why I am still watching. For now its on the "watch a bit more of it later" roster; movies that take me 3 or 4 days to finish. Something to have running while I fall asleep.

Look at it this way, I'm 25 minutes in before I decide "you know what? I'm going to look up the rating in imdb before I continue at this point." Just wanting to make sure I'm on the same page as everyone else. With a 4.7 right now, it appears we are in agreement.

Thought this was going to be a good martial arts movie but it just didn't get there. Acting was okay but some real corny parts. When you think of martial arts movies, you think of respect and honor. The character Omani was pretty annoying. She didn't do as she was told and lacked discipline. There was a fight scene which was a practice and the fighting was poor. Clearly did not make them look like elite killers. The positive was having Dustin Nguyen and legend Mark Degascos in a movie together. Overall disappointing considering how decent the first one was. Probably should have rewatched the first one.

The acting was horribly distracting. There might have been 1 or 2 good actors, but they couldn't save the plot AT ALL!!! The CGI blood was also bad. Master Shinshiro (I think his name was), is obviously one of the better actors. I'm very upset none of the females were good at acting. The choreography was good but could have been better executed. I didn't watch the other Ronin movie with Reeves, but I hope it was waaay better than this one. I'm trying to figure out how it was in Netflix top ten . I guess if your a lover of fighting in movies, you might enjoy it. The problem wasn't their slow movement, but that they were so slow, it looked like they were acting it out. Very few scenes were executed well. I would never recommend to anyone to watch. EVER!!!

What happens when you take a decent movie about Japanese lore and try to make it a John Wick, girl power knock-off? This inane piece of garbage where John Wick is actually mentioned. I gave it two stars because the fight scenes were tolerable, unlike the writing, acting and dialogue. This is a horrible grab for views using a popular movie. If you feel the need to watch, just go in knowing that there is nothing really redeeming about it and could be entertaining if you are doing other stuff and only pay half attention to it. There are better things to watch on Netflix if you want a strong female herion.

I know the 47 Ronin is not considered to be a good movie; however, I am a fan. While imperfect, there are certain elements of the filmmaking and storytelling that were memorable. This film lacks most, if not all of those elements, and is hardly a sequel to the Keanu Reeves 2013 film. It reminds me of a film styled more after the Wu Assassins movie, than the Reeves story of 47 Masterless Samurai that defend their honor in a battle with evil and magic. This movie has some good elements but it is corny and visually very low budget. The CGI blood is too unrealistic for my taste. The characters too silly. I do like some of the marital arts and I do like some of the stars of the film, particularly the lead female star. I tried to look at this as a stand alone to see if it might fare better, but, sadly, it did not. If you are not a martial arts movie fan I would deduct an additional star.

What a horrible follow up to a classic. I turned this move off half way through and watch the original. This movie did the original no justice. I wish they did better. No honor In this movie.

The action scenes were sub-par, the acting felt very scripted, the actors / actress has no real interest. This move did. Not pay tribute to the samurai tradition but instead made it a joke.

I can't understand why Netflix would give this the name of such a legendary movie and produced such a horrible story line.

Please stop remaking amazing movies and not doing them justice.

If I was a ronin I would sacrifice my life while watching this.

Set in the not too distant future in Budapest, Hungary, the ancient clans of Japanese Samurai continue to operate in the shadows of society on a global scale as they did in Feudal Japan. Yurei (Dan Southworth), a descendant of the witch Mizuki who was an adversary of the 47 Ronin, sets his sights on acquiring the Witch Blade and Warrior Blade so he can form the Tengu Blade and wipe out the Samurai for good. As the Samurai lords meet to discuss the rising threat, it is learned only a descendant of the 47 Ronin may wiled the blade that will defeat ancient evil as dictated by the prophecy, but with the death of Lord Arai (Chris Peng) at the hands of Yurei the bloodline is seemingly ended, until Lord Shinshiro (Mark Dacascos) suggests the possibility there is another descendant in the American born Luna (Anna Akana) who has come to Budapest to claim the sword willed to her by Arai. Shinshiro's niece and onna-bugeisha, Onami (Teresa Ting), enlists the help of Ronin and friend Reo (Mike Moh) in tracking down Luna and after saving her from Yurei's henchman begin the task of introducing her to the world of Samurai and convince her to embrace her destiny.

Blade of the 47 Ronin is the latest release from Universal's direct-to-video label Universal 1440 which specializes in mining assets owned by Universal for production of direct to video genre films (Tales from the Hood 2&3, Dragonheart 3-5, etc.) with their work varying from decent timekilling fare to absolute trash like Welcome to Sudden Death and Woody Woodpecker the movie. The fact that 2013's 47 Ronin got a sequel (even a direct-to video sequel) is certainly surprising as 47 Ronin was one of the biggest bombs released to theaters that year after going through a troubled production which resulted in the director having a nervous breakdown. However, it's important to note that 47 Ronin was the last film Keanu Reeves was in (as a supporting player despite being plastered on the poster) before Reeve's career spectacularly re-ignited thanks to the success of John Wick and making Reeves as popular as he was in the 90s with The Matrix. With that new success it stands to reason his fans probably helped 47 Ronin eek into "break even" territory with rental and home media sales which gave Universal enough confidence for this follow-up. Directed by martial artist/stunt choreographer Ron Yuan, the movie ditches any pretense of "traditional" trappings the original film attempted and instead goes into full on genre bending insanity as the film plays like a mixture of John Wick, the Scott Adkins' Ninja films, and even some sprinkling of Star Wars mixed in to create some colorful and entertaining action nonsense.

Thanks to the 300 year time jump the film takes with its quasi-future establishment, Blade of the 47 Ronin largely ditches the dour and fatalistic tone of the first film that ended with all of the 47 Ronin (save for one) committing seppuku to regain their honor and goes instead for more of a comic book noir fantasy approach to the material but with some humor mixed in so it takes itself far less seriously than its predecessor did. The movie looks pretty good for a direct-to-video film with some nice looking costumes, colorful visuals, and on point choreography to the action scenes (not surprising given it's directed by a veteran stunt coordinator) but it does take a while to introduce the audience to this world as the first act of this movie has a LOT of exposition to get through that's pretty confusing and with how many names, macguffins, and rules are established it can feel overwhelming especially since our protagonist does show up to fill the position for a good 20 minutes or so.

Once the movie does move past the burdensome exposition the movie finds its footing thanks to a solid ensemble of performers with the likes of Anna Akana, Teresa Ting, Mike Moh, Chris Pang, and Mark Dacascos making for fun and engaging presences in the film who have some great chemistry with one another in both performances and fight sequences. The movie certainly delivers on the fight sequences and they are a sight to behold with these fluidly choreographed sword fights with waves of Ninja deliver with high energy and intensity. The only real shame with the fight scenes is the usage of CGI blood and gore because it does take you out of the movie a little bit, especially when you consider all the great spatter and gore artists working in the industry today that could've really added that extra "something" to these sequences, but with the nature of the industry being about cutting time spent on the project, it's understandable how much pressure there is to deliver these things "on schedule". Another criticism I had was in Dan Southworth's Yurei as our antagonist and I honestly wasn't really that impressed by him in the role, while Southworth does have experience in action such as Power Rangers: Time Force playing the Quantum Ranger, his fight sequences here feel very stiff and restrained and he's also not that intimidating in his performance either.

Despite the baffling nature of its existence at all, Blade of the 47 Ronin does its job in delivering colorful action nonsense in entertaining and efficient measure. Some of the opening exposition is a bit unwieldly, and the CGI blood and a not all that intimidating antagonist are a little disappointing, but for a movie that didn't really need to exist I'm honestly kind of glad it does.

I'm all for a good Asian martial arts movie. Even if it is cheesy or campy. This was neither good nor campy. The acting was terrible, script was cringy, music choices didn't give me the feels, stunts were meh, characters were flat and plot was so soupy in that it would seep through a slotted spoon. The best thing I can say about this movie is the set design and perhaps the one-liner calling Mark Dacascos' character a "John Wick freak" which is hilarious as his character IN John Wick 3 was fanboying John Wick hard!

Admittedly I am not familiar with the storyline from previous renditions of the 47 Ronin so perhaps I missed a nugget of authenticity but this movie was awful. I say skip it and watch .... Anything else.

It's campy, it's cliched, it's corny, and it's fun. The key to watching this movie is to not take anything seriously. It's filled with just about every martial arts trope there is, and that just adds to its charm.

The basic plot (if you want to call it that), is that a magic using "witch" will wipe out all the samurai remaining in the 21st century unless he is killed by a descendant of the 47 ronin. Pretty thin, but it sets up the story for lots of cheesy dialog, and copious amounts of martial arts mayhem. If you sit back and just go with the flow the movie is enjoyable (but not great by any stretch of the imagination), and a fun way to pass a couple of hours.

I actually liked this movie. The dialogue is whedonesque (yeah I know, but he was a great writer) although it could have benefited from tighter delivery. The martial arts started off bad but gets better as the movie progresses. The training montage is a bit silly though. There are a couple of plot twists toward the end, which are not too predictable after a long day at work. Don't expect an Oscar winner and you wont be disappointed. I originally started out watching it because of the lead actress, Anna Akana is a YouTube presenter I watch. It got off to a bad start but after an introduction scene (you'll know it if you watch it) I thought "ha ha, yeah I'll keep watching this", and I'm glad I did.

No pun intended - and no connection to the Marvel Blade of course. Maybe it was intended after all you say? Come on - let's pretend it wasn't ok? Also if you think that is silly - well the movie is upping and doubling down on silly. You have to really like the sense of humor it does serve you - especially from one of the main characters. Fish out of water - and not ready to accept responsibility.

Luckily you have Mark Dacascos and others to guide her ... will it be enough though? Not just for the movie and its bad guy, but also for you and your viewing pleasure? Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the action - which is well choreographed (considering the budget this probably had, maybe even more than decent, do not compare it with ... let's say John Wick - not even though it does have a joke about it - one that is even funnier considering Dacascos is in one of the Wicks ...)

Couldn't get past 30mins of the movie, so far I can tell in my own words this movie is a disrespect to the 47 ronin. I was looking forward for this movie and devastated to how it turned out, there's no heart and soul in the movie, no creativity just trash to be honest. The first 47 ronin was a masterpiece had everything to make u want and to learn more about the culture and to teach you as well. This movie looks to basically fool you into thinking you will get the same satisfaction but actually is the complete opposite. Also not to mention it looks very cheaply made. I would recommend not to watch especially if the original means something to you deep down.

This movie is terrible... there was no effort in the acting at all, it was super corny! The first one that was made is amazing! This one was disrespectful to the first one lol that's how bad this movie is! Just look at how great the acting is in the first one & then watch this one, super disappointing. If your going to make a movie put some effort behind the acting because this was terrible. A lot of the acting was stuck up and it was really annoying because I think there should've been more humbleness in the acting, more effort & meaning behind the acting! Y'all could've actually tried but there was no good effort in this movie sadly & the fight scenes were super corny too.

I'm not really a fan of this genre of film; but, have always enjoyed Mark Dacascos, so I thought I would kill some time tonight and watch it with very low expectations. What a pleasant surprise! A terrific tale of good vs evil with very good character development, a decent plot and performances by younger actors that rose to the occasion. I think the veteran actors must have brought out the best in the younger stars, because they really brought their A-game. Just a well-balanced, albeit predictable, action film that checked all the right boxes. No one is going to win an Oscar here; but, this film punches way above it's weight class and doesn't disappoint. Nicely choreographed action sequences that are not over-the-top (if you can ignore the magic powers of the head "witch") or too drawn-out or too gory. A satisfying ending for the characters that were developed fully enough for us to care about.

Altogether well-worth a couple hours of time.

The original 2013 film 47 Ronin had astounding visuals but lacked a compelling story. Despite the original film not being a good film I enjoyed it. This film, Blade of the 47 Ronin, has none of those great visuals, and the story is far from gripping. Featured throughout this film is poor amateurish cinematography, uninspired and irrational writing, with poor acting. Teresa Ting's character Onami is the most captivating character in the film, the others for me were forgettable. The stunt team absolutely carried this film, they did a great job with the fight scenes throughout and was the only reason I watched it through. That said, I hated the fake CGI blood and would have rather had no blood at all. This seems like it would have been better as a fully fleshed out 10ish episode series rather than a film sequel.

I was waiting for this movie to come out and watched it as soon as I got a chance to.

I loved the movie, no idea why there's so many negative reviews. Nice plot, not too long, loved seeing Anna Akana here, especially with the bluish hair and the fighting scene. I remember seeing on her Instagram how she was training for the movie and flew to Europe, how excited she was to be part of this movie. Good fighting scenes, loved seeing how the prophecy worked out.

I'd suggest watching this movie if you have free time, you'll definitely not be bored. I, personally, enjoyed it.

Also didn't expect the turn at the end :)

It's VERY easy to trash this film. The direct-to-video casting, the what-can-we-rent set locations, the lame fight sequences, bad ninja costumes, and the AUDACITY to claim to be a sequel to 47 Ronin. However, I rather like this film. The vibe is intended to be a blend; there are hints of anime, John Wick, and bloodline/heritage fantasy (which technically includes Star Wars).

The uh, "streetwise con-artist who's actually a hero" thing has been done before, but unfortunately that's how our heroine Luna (Anna Akana) is introduced. She's fun and delivers most of the snark (a few of her lines are LOL-worthy).

Mark Dacascos (John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum) is immediately recognizable as Shinshiro, but this oddity is neatly defused when Luna calls him a "John Wick fanboy". This is the only meta-humor I noticed, and it's nicely done.

Dan Southworth is underwhelming as Yurei, the bad guy. It's like watching an over-the-hill Steven Seagal try to channel Darth Vader.

I realize this film gets many bad reviews, but it held my attention (I eventually viewed it a 2nd time and found it quite rewatchable). Some of the snark works, and this helps.

The dilemma is whether to rate this as 5 or 6 stars (you can skip the following deliberation).

I rate this as 4 stars for story, 1 star for snark, and 1 star for Anna Akana, who is ... easy on the eyes. However, I'm deducting one star for the monotonous ninja attacks and overall forgettability. That's a 5-star subtotal.

However, this film is more than the sum of its (rather weak) parts; it has a certain ... "Je Ne Sais Quoi". I think the people who made it were trying for ... something ... and partly succeeded. This explains the surprising rewatchability, and is worth a BONUS star in my view. That makes six (6) stars total.

Lightly recommended for B-movie fans (who are in the right mood).

This was better than i thought it was going to be when i saw that the main star was Anna Akana. She's a very attractive Woman, but sadly for her, that's where her talents begin and end. I've seen a relative few of her YouTube videos, and i get the distinct impression she wasn't actually acting in this, but rather just showed up on set as herself. Her 'acting' is more wooden than a forest inhabited by marionettes, living in log cabins.

The rest of the cast were pretty decent in fairness, though the poor CGI blood was another let down. Action wise, some of the choreography for the fight scenes was well done, although the continual 'spinning' deaths of the 'Ninja' did grate a bit after the 5th kill.

I've certainly seen worse films, and as a way to kill an hour or so, there's definitely worse things i could've done. Would i recommend this to anyone? No. I'm sure though this will be a minor success, as Akana's fan boys/girls will blindly declare their love for this, further inflating the already preparing to pop ego of this Youtube 'personality'.

Trust me this movie was so boring and the story line so lazy dialogue less interesting and overall bad mixture the cast did their best though but I feel most of the problem is the writing and the style of the movie I noticed an attempt was made with the Slow Mo and close ups but trust me even the fights were boring the title actually drew me to it and the poster was also sick but it was like expecting an actual Lava volcano and being giving a paper volcano way below expectations I would advice they do better trust me this move really didn't do it for me and I'm still going through it the second time to understand what's up.