Reviews

Okay, I've read all the critiques about the historical inaccuracies in this film but to be honest; I didn't care. I'm not watching a documentary, I'm watching an exciting movie about a historical demi-god. Or.. at least.. that's what I was hoping for. I'm a big fan of Joaquin Phoenix as an actor and Ridley Scott as a director. So I was expecting a beautiful epos like Gladiator, The Martian etcetera. I was hoping for an actors performance like fireworks never seen before. Napoleon is such a remarkable and interesting character so what could ever go wrong with a film like this, an actor like Phoenix and a director like Scott.

We'll.. apparently everything! This must be the most boring movie I have seen in years! It's dull, it's tedious, it's simply uninteresting. And the most boring of all is Phoenix as Napoleon! How can he play Napoleon as one dimensional as he has? There's no emotion. No depth. No fun. Watching Phoenix in this film is like watching grass grow!

Then the battles must be awesome..? Right? Wrong! I mean, they're not horribly boring, but not worth watching hot be honest. We've seen so much better. Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan, Braveheart and even Lord of the Rings, those movies had exciting battles. In this one I found myself scrolling my phone even during the 'action' scenes.. That's saying a lot. Nowhere does it explain what makes (made) Napoleon such a genius on the battlefield. It doesn't build up to anything. Within 75 minutes he goes from an unknown army captain to his first banishment to Elba. In between it's mostly awkward encounters with Josephine which are uneasy to watch. Then he leaves Elba, comes back, finds himself at Waterloo, loses, gets banished to St. Helena and dies. Nothing from the first to the last minute was even remotely interesting.

The problem isn't that the the film is historical inaccurate.. the problem is that the film is simply boring.