Okay so Ridley Scott’s latest attempt at filmmaking has hit the big screen. Napoleon chronicles Bonaparte’s life and military history…in excruciating detail. Scott has a mostly successful body of work but his bad movies are extremely bad. That said this movie doesn’t necessarily fall into that category, that said I still don’t like it.
Okay let’s start with the good; The cinematography was beautiful. It was scaled perfectly and in a way that the audience could see just how big and grandiose the french revolution was. He also didn’t shy away from the gore that comes with battle. From the beheading of Marie Antoinette to the canon blowing up Bonaparte’s horse the realities of war were clearly depicted on screen.
The acting was…fine. There was nothing egregious about it but there was also nothing special. I’m sure Joaquin Phoenix did a great job portraying Napoleon how he was and Vanessa Kirby is beautiful. But honestly everyone’s performances were a little flat. There was no one that stood out and nothing that was really engaging to watch.
Now the reason I really didn’t connect with this movie is two-fold. One; it played like a cinematic documentary. And if I wanted to watch a blow by blow documentary then that’s what I would do. The cinematic part really ended with the visuals and there was no storytelling in the presentation. We got the highlights of his life, we watched the timeline of Napoleon Bonaparte we did not however get the story of Napoleon Bonaparte. We get it, he was an arrogant dick but who didn’t know that already? And two; Napoleon was not interesting enough to warrant 2 hours and 37 minutes to himself. The French revolution? Sure. Marie Antoinette? Absolutely. But really all you need to know about Bonaparte is that he was an arrogant dick…and again, we knew that already.
Look if you are a major history nerd and you like documentaries then I am sure that this movie is great. But if you are a fan of film then this definitely isn’t it.
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