47 Ronin's lame attempt at breaking from standardized tropes
1. "the white saviour"
He comes to the savages, becomes one of them, learns their secrets and it turns out that he's even better at their own crafts and specialties than they are. See: "Avatar", "Last Samurai", "John Carpenter of Mars"...
In 47 Ronin, they at least tried to break that trope, by building up a white saviour hero and a native hero. They are declared equal via a duel-scene. And each hero gets his endboss-fight: The white saviour gets the fight with the action, the native hero gets the fight with the drama.
And yet, the white saviour is the one who knows more about this land's secrets than the natives themselves.
2. the "Bechdel-Test"
The movie has to contain at least one scene where at least two female main characters talk to each other about something other than men.
Many movies suffer from this natural chauvinism and it's a common complaint among feminists. 47 Ronin tried to pass that test by adding the scene where the witch tries to talk the princess into committing suicide.
And yet...
The witch's argument is that so many people, including the princess's secret love, died in a futile attempt to save her. -> They are effectively talking about her lovers death.
Neither witch nor princess get introduced as characters. The are just empty models with traits slapped on them. -> They aren't main characters.
- The witch is evil and knows magic. She helps the bad guy and wants to bring war. That's it. No motivation, no past.
- The princess is nothing but a damsel in distress. The audience is ordered to believe that she were a talented politician in the mold of her successful father. How? Other characters said that to each other! And she had an idea how to arrange the tribunes for the tournament! And yet, the princess never exhibits wit or a penchant for diplomacy or negotiation. I think, she has just about 10 sentences during the whole movie.
Trying to be something new?
Trying to stray away from old paths and still profit from a colorful world of war and magic à la "Pirates of the Caribbean"?
Nice try, but not good enough.