I went through the reviews and almost skipped the flick, glad I didn't but I agree with many of the complaints. I'm a big fan of Scott & Phoenix, but yeah, the kind magic that happened in good ole' Gladiator didn't happen here sad to say.
Many of the negatives pointed out are legit, some are more of nitpicks really and thus exaggerations and then there are bent history buffs complaining. Here are the 3 biggest negatives as I see them with some commentary about them:
1. Lack of emotion, passion & tension - This is probably the biggest flaw as it really ratchets down enjoyment, even in battles which is crazy. These should have been glorious tense exciting feats or defeats; instead all we got were great visuals and well-choreographed battles. Even just a celebration after would have helped, nope, hard to care the way they were portrayed, not even a single outburst in the entire flick. To drive this home a little more, here we have one of the greatest & most famous battle commanders of all time and what we see from him is essentially an arm signal during battles? Epic fail right there.
Outside of battles unfortunately it shows and stings even more, even in his marriage which makes up about half the film. In the films 1st 20 mins Phoenix is completely catatonic which I put on him. He then relaxes somewhat in the role but unfortunately this demeanor is still there throughout the entire film, which I put more on Scarpa & Scott. We finally do see a little emotion from Nappy when he is confronting Josephine about one of her misdoings but even there he's largely flat.
I mostly blame the screenplay for all this but truth is Scott & Phoenix share some blame here too. Even the score is at fault, it could have easily added some tension to many scenes and instead it completely fails to do so.
2. Nappy's missing character - Many have gone on about the historical inaccuracies of which there are but to me the bigger flaw is the incomplete portrayal of one of World's greatest Military Masterminds. There really were no big historical departures, the film followed along his timeline close enough, yes things were embellished in places its fairly rare movies don't do this for the big screen to some degree.
So what we do see is a very uncharismatic military officer who somehow manages to rise through the ranks, gain the admiration of many and eventually become Emperor? That doesn't jive really. Those who have read up know he had insecurities and even social awkwardness, but come on. He was not one-dimensional like we seen by any stretch and what was left out were his more interesting qualities; like the highly intelligent passionate hard working persuasive confident leader with an undying ambitious determination who could easily inspire thousands to follow him. Read some of the first-hand reports about him, it's absolutely criminal that we didn't see any of this side of him, and the movie would have been SO MUCH BETTER if we had, and that goes right back into point 1 I made as well.
Many are blaming Phoenix here and while I'm not letting him totally off the hook this ultimately falls on Scott no matter how the script was written and how it was acted. It's his film and ultimately his decision on how we would see Nappy portrayed.
3. Too much Josephine not enough battle - This comes down to preference somewhat but the majority of people if polled would agree here I'm sure, even though Kirby does a great job in her role and is one of the highlights. At least we could have had more scenes leading up to battles, showing us why the conflicts arose, but a little more battle time would have been nice. Then we could have hopefully witnessed some of his brilliance and why he has been so thoroughly studied by so many, and just look at how the Egypt battle was shown it was pitifully short, terrible.
We could of even had a little more Politics, it's hard to overlook the glaring omission of the fundamental liberal policies he implemented in France & throughout Western Europe, and his lasting legal achievement the Napoleonic Code which was adopted in various forms by many of the World's legal systems. No, instead somewhere around 50% of the movie is just focused on his marriage and ultimately it really drags down the pacing, and the movie.
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I've painted a pretty negative impression of the movie but as I said above I still found it enjoyable, it helped that I lowered my expectations beforehand thanks to some of the reviews here.
Its shame Scarpa & Scott took the directions they did it feels like a lost opportunity for a Grand Epic, and in the end I think competently covering his whole political & military career in 1 flick is a bridge too far, which didn't help either.
Many of the negatives pointed out are legit, some are more of nitpicks really and thus exaggerations and then there are bent history buffs complaining. Here are the 3 biggest negatives as I see them with some commentary about them:
1. Lack of emotion, passion & tension - This is probably the biggest flaw as it really ratchets down enjoyment, even in battles which is crazy. These should have been glorious tense exciting feats or defeats; instead all we got were great visuals and well-choreographed battles. Even just a celebration after would have helped, nope, hard to care the way they were portrayed, not even a single outburst in the entire flick. To drive this home a little more, here we have one of the greatest & most famous battle commanders of all time and what we see from him is essentially an arm signal during battles? Epic fail right there.
Outside of battles unfortunately it shows and stings even more, even in his marriage which makes up about half the film. In the films 1st 20 mins Phoenix is completely catatonic which I put on him. He then relaxes somewhat in the role but unfortunately this demeanor is still there throughout the entire film, which I put more on Scarpa & Scott. We finally do see a little emotion from Nappy when he is confronting Josephine about one of her misdoings but even there he's largely flat.
I mostly blame the screenplay for all this but truth is Scott & Phoenix share some blame here too. Even the score is at fault, it could have easily added some tension to many scenes and instead it completely fails to do so.
2. Nappy's missing character - Many have gone on about the historical inaccuracies of which there are but to me the bigger flaw is the incomplete portrayal of one of World's greatest Military Masterminds. There really were no big historical departures, the film followed along his timeline close enough, yes things were embellished in places its fairly rare movies don't do this for the big screen to some degree.
So what we do see is a very uncharismatic military officer who somehow manages to rise through the ranks, gain the admiration of many and eventually become Emperor? That doesn't jive really. Those who have read up know he had insecurities and even social awkwardness, but come on. He was not one-dimensional like we seen by any stretch and what was left out were his more interesting qualities; like the highly intelligent passionate hard working persuasive confident leader with an undying ambitious determination who could easily inspire thousands to follow him. Read some of the first-hand reports about him, it's absolutely criminal that we didn't see any of this side of him, and the movie would have been SO MUCH BETTER if we had, and that goes right back into point 1 I made as well.
Many are blaming Phoenix here and while I'm not letting him totally off the hook this ultimately falls on Scott no matter how the script was written and how it was acted. It's his film and ultimately his decision on how we would see Nappy portrayed.
3. Too much Josephine not enough battle - This comes down to preference somewhat but the majority of people if polled would agree here I'm sure, even though Kirby does a great job in her role and is one of the highlights. At least we could have had more scenes leading up to battles, showing us why the conflicts arose, but a little more battle time would have been nice. Then we could have hopefully witnessed some of his brilliance and why he has been so thoroughly studied by so many, and just look at how the Egypt battle was shown it was pitifully short, terrible.
We could of even had a little more Politics, it's hard to overlook the glaring omission of the fundamental liberal policies he implemented in France & throughout Western Europe, and his lasting legal achievement the Napoleonic Code which was adopted in various forms by many of the World's legal systems. No, instead somewhere around 50% of the movie is just focused on his marriage and ultimately it really drags down the pacing, and the movie.
-----
I've painted a pretty negative impression of the movie but as I said above I still found it enjoyable, it helped that I lowered my expectations beforehand thanks to some of the reviews here.
Its shame Scarpa & Scott took the directions they did it feels like a lost opportunity for a Grand Epic, and in the end I think competently covering his whole political & military career in 1 flick is a bridge too far, which didn't help either.
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