There’s a good movie inside of “The Last Samurai.” It tells the story about a fallible man who is haunted by his demons, desperate to make up for his wrongdoings. True, it is a story that has been told before, but rarely to the level of entertainment such as this.

This is all the more reason to consider it heartbreaking that this same movie is dragged down by an additional hour of filler.

Cruise plays Captain Nathan Algren, a bitter Civil War vet who has a few secrets eating his conscience. It’s to his personal benefit, or so he assumes, to travel to Japan where he will be paid to train the Japanese army. The Japanese are mobilizing against a revolutionist named Katsumoto (Watanabe) who, for some reason, has a problem with the current regime.

When forced into battle, Algren’s unprepared militia embarrassingly loses to the opposing side. After being heavily wounded and slaying a personal friend, Katsumoto decides to leave Algren alive. He takes him hostage and puts him under the care of his widowed sister, played by Koyuki. As time passes, Algren grows on his caretakers and buys into their beliefs, convincing himself that he is fighting for the wrong side.

I found a few impressive things about “The Last Samurai.” Too often films shamelessly idolize their heroes, and this film never glorifies its main character. Algren is beaten, shot and stabbed many times.

John Toll’s cinematography is the reason to see this film. Toll won an Oscar for Edward Zwick’s “Legends of the Fall,” a film that suffers for many of the same reasons this film does. It’s easy to appreciate films with such high production values, but it’s hard to recommend them due to their hole-ridden, melodramatic plots.

Many of the key problems with “The Last Samurai” stem from its ho-hum script. It feels like the film was built around a single concept and typical plot formulations would fill around it. In this case it’s the climactic battle sequence, and those formulations would be conflicted characters suffering from universal problems (e.g. alcoholism and death), a cheesy romance subplot and the certainty that some main characters will be iced.

This means those characters suffering from problems are given little room to develop. The script’s lack of expansion voids Cruise any room for characterization, which is why when he isn’t playing Captain Algren, drunken fool, he’s playing “Top Gun” Tom.

On the other hand, Watanabe manages to give Katsumoto some breath. Every other character in the film is preoccupied with something juvenile, especially Algren, who has a vendetta against a former commanding officer, played by Tony Goldwyn, and this weird love thing going on with the widow.

Most of these subplots don’t work because we’re not given enough time — amazing in a two-and-a-half hour movie — to believe in them.

By supplying a script as pre-packaged as one can get, it’s no surprise we get what we’ve been served. “The Last Samurai” abides by typical Hollywood clich‚s and suffers considerably from them because it doesn’t dare go where it should.

I mentioned earlier “The Last Samurai” is entertaining. Excluding some aforementioned details and considering its massive runtime, it is. It’s just a shame no one realizes the possibly of making great 90-minute films without the frilly edges and tired subplots.