It's insane that a movie with such great acting and directing talent, and source material from Kurosawa, could produce such a silly, boring, ill-paced film.
Most of the characters are doing stupid, inconsistent things, or are just window dressing with no real arcs of their own. There are huge plotholes that are ignored or left dangling,. The story is set against the backdrop of a confoundingly ill-suited original soundtrack that might be better used in a children's movie about a Scottish sheep herder.
I I'm a fan of Spike Lee and Denzel Washington and I see glimpses of greatness in this movie that should have been fixed in rewrites and development. I simply can't fathom how anybody could give this movie anything more than two stars. If anyone deserves an Oscar here it's the pr person for the production company which is somehow delivered a 4.6 star average review at the time I'm writing this.