OK, so I was settling down for 2 hours of fun nonsense, I love a good samurai flick... but i had to resist the urge to dump this movie after an hour, but i stuck with it hoping maybe for a great finale.... but it never came.<br /><br />This could have been a great movie - they had the budget, some great supporting actors, a fun idea. But the whole thing lacked conviction. The fight sequences were well set up, but fell between the two stools of the hard realism of 'Zatoichi' or 'Twilight Samuri', or balletic grace of a Zhang Yimou action flick. The main problem is the actors - has there ever been a more wimpy bunch of action hero's? Aya Ueto is completely unconvincing, Michelle Yeoh would use this girl as a toothpick. The script seems to have been written by a bored 15 year old on a wet afternoon. Is it too much to expect a bit of wit and some good dialogue, even from a cartoon action movie? The vague attempts to give the characters depth were embarrassingly bad. The cinematography was straight out of a cheap afternoon TV movie.<br /><br />The only really good thing about this movie is the baddies - a good range of character actors doing fun turns - but when i find myself wishing that the bad guys would cut up the good guys I know the movies onto a loser.<br /><br />I really wish i could say something nicer about this movie, but I really feel it was 2 hours lost from my life.