Terrible I stand to rate this movie independently from its other content. Which by the way is far more beneficial because I AM NOT A RUROUNI KENSHIN fan, I found the original story in my teen years to be ridiculous and very annoying. Hence, I ventured into this solely because of a comment saying this would stray from the original content. So if you are venturing into Rurouni Kenshin, allow me to prepare you for what to expect. It's a samurai movie heavily based on the barely there fighting sequences hence plot is rather sacrificed to put some focus on the action. The plot features fight sequences triggered by Damsels in Distress and Kenshin being well just a regular dude contemplating the shittiness of his past life. If you come into this movie expecting lots of slayage, 3/4 of this movie lacks this hence where I should not dock points, I did. If a movie with a badass sword fighter spends a majority of its time trying to build a lazy plot then I am going to have to take the plot into consideration. The plot revolves around Kenshin, a swordsman whose alter ego everyone pronounces like it's sacrilegious. Known as Battousai the Manslayer, Kenshin spends most of this movie doing none of that, having sworn never to kill anyone else. We are given dishes of his past which I found thoroughly underwhelming and just not very original. The story also focuses in splices on other characters which means nothing is ever really developed. We in the end have a black and white scenario of the self-righteous good guys vs the baddy bad guys. The worst part is that in a movie where the main character's name is in the title, he's by far not even the most interesting character. Badass villains are featured here with intriguing personalities but in the end they are merely bad guys who do bad guy things and act crazy. Funny enough though, learn all your life lessons from the bad guys. Not kidding here, the bad guys here have got all the most realistic quotes you need. Because the good guys are all "we're samurais who will not kill" like are you kidding me? The movie definitely did not need the length that it had. It dragged yet offered nothing that really aided the plot. The climax is an underwhelming stereotypical good guy getting beaten up only to recover I don't know if I've edited too much video but some of the fight scenes relied heavily on cuts making the sequences feel haphazard though overall, they aren't bad though. There's a level of fluidity that makes them somewhat fun to watch. Not enough to carry the movie though. If perchance you're thinking, I am not a fan of the genre, I assure you I've read the likes of Vagabond, Blade of the immortal and even read the Mushashi novel by Eiji Yoshikawa. Samurai tales were my obsession for quite a while which is precisely why the lackluster tale of Rurouni Kenshin has never appealed not when its philosophical and better written counterparts exist.