POSITIVES…
Fans of the Rurouni Kenshin franchise should be ecstatic to be watching this live-action adaptation, and in particular the story arc that it’s based on.
Plot and narrative should keep you hooked to see things through the end.
Seeing the whole cast of familiar characters is just such a joy.
It’s also always great to see the Japanese locations and time period that these movies are set in.
As expected, the action sequences are awesome!
Fight choreography is fantastic!
I can never get tired of seeing certain characters sprinting and running on walls.
Excellent action set pieces, from the opening introduction of Enishi, to that scene where a certain character is fighting a horde of enemies by himself.
Takeru Satoh is once again perfect as Kenshin Himura, Emi Takei is wonderful as Kaoru Kamiya, and Mackenyu is phenomenal as Enishi Yukishiro.
I do love how the battles are very heightened, full of wanton destruction, and filled with colorful characters with superhuman skills and abilities. It’s really like watching superheroes fighting supervillains.
Who doesn’t like those dramatic displays of friendship, honor, heroics, and kindness? Plus all those dramatic character entrances!
“Hate me? Quite enough people hate me already.”
NEGATIVES…
Yes, it’s another plot that revolves around Kenshin’s past that is dangerously haunting him again. What else is new? Is this movie a little derivative? Yes.
A huge chunk of the supporting cast unfortunately gets second tier attention in this, to the point that they are either background characters or just present purely for the fights.
Heightened operatic melodrama and cool stances for dramatic effect, can get a little ridiculous at times to the point of self-parody.
So much tormented self-pity parties. Does this movie take itself really seriously? Sure does.
The movie is 138 minutes long, and some might criticize it for being way too heavy on action sequences to the point of numbness.
Those very important and relevant flashback scenes are arguably not edited well for this narrative. I get why they are the way they are; there’s that next movie coming out, but still…
Slow-motion shots could be smoother. Seriously.
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