Seven Samurai

wow. beautiful black & white cinematography, signature kurosawa blocking, thrilling action sequences, loveable characters and an overall gripping, timeless story. i understand why this is so highly rated, and on rewatch i'll probably bump it up to five stars, but don't think that means i didn't like it. one of the greatest movies of all time and a deserved classic. i don't think i have the skills to write a review that puts seven samurai to justice, but i'll try.
first of all, the influence this movie had is as widespread as you can imagine, just look at most movies ever created, and you'll find something from here.
then the cinematography, blocking, camerawork, and just about everything else to do with visuals shone throughout the film, i literally cannot praise this enough. i was constantly in awe watching all the iconic sequences, and as i watched on the 70th anniversary 4k edition (i would've bought the criterion instead if only they shipped to australia), it made it all the more stunning.
next the action, and while i am not the biggest fan of action i still significantly enjoyed seeing all the horrifying carnage of the bandit's slaughter and the slow-yet-gripping samurai showdowns, and you might think that the age of the movie might diminish the spectacle, but you'd be wrong as kurosawa knows how and when to use it to its full extent.
then the characters, and at first i was intimidated by just how many there were, and how quickly they were getting introduced, but kurosawa used his almost three-and-a-half-hour runtime to flesh out each character and give them all unique personalities, flaws, and quirks. i also have to mention that he basically invented character traits in the movie (obviously not literally), as in the strong one, the leader, the comic relief, the young one etc.
and the story, which as i said before is as timeless as the samurai movie itself and as thrilling as a never-ending rollercoaster ride. spoilers ahead, but it follows a village who is about to be looted by bandits, so they set out to hire samurai to protect the village, and that is when all the iconic characters are introduced. then they head back, and the samurai essentially get the lay of the land, get to know the people, and start strategizing a plan. then they train the village peoples, and then the huge fight happens, which i'm not even going to try and describe and is probably the best part of the movie.
now come my problems with the movie, so to speak, and the reasons why i just couldn't rate it a 5/5, even though it is on the cusp of it. the main reason is probably that, in my opinion, there is a noticeable lull in the pacing of the film from when the samurai finish training the village people to about maybe 1/3 way through the final battle, and it kind of ruined it for me, as up until then i was really enjoying and getting invested in it, but i'm glad to see i was the only person with this problem.
finally, seven samurai is just an overall great movie, and as i said before a completely and well-deserved classic from the golden ages of both toho studios and akira kurosawa, and was great to see on the 70th anniversary 4k edition disc, which came with a poster, souvenir booklet and polaroids.