Robert Sodaro reviewed 47 Ronin for The Examiner and gave it 3/5 stars. He said that the film is good regardless of what you heard. He finishes with:
…it is easy to dismiss this version (especially if you are a fan of one of the earlier, Japanese versions), but we personally feel that Reeves did a fine job, and that the film makes this very powerful legend more accessible to a non-Japanese audience, hence we are going to give it a pass, and call it a fine job. We had never seen any of the earlier versions, so to us, it was all new, and (truthfully) quite exciting. So ignore the haters and go out to check out this very well-made film enlightening us about a legend from a foreign land.