Joaquin Phoenix stars as the legendary leader in Ridley Scott's portrait of the man from his first great victory until his death.
Scott has made a great looking film that will blow your mind with some of the greatest period action set pieces ever put on film (regardless if thats what happened or isn't). Its a technically amazing film that is going to delight people for years...
...unfortunately the film, even at two and a half hours, is much too short. We are marched through the moments between the set pieces. We really don't get any sort of character development simply because there isn't enough time. Yes, we do feel some emotion at times but it's purely because most of the actors are good enough to make anything they do great (thank you Vanessa Kirby)
I know many people have praised Joaquin Phoenix's performance, but I'm still trying to sort out if it is anything to write home about. The problem is that as we see here there is very little room for him to do more than look and sound imperial. I'm curious if Scott will release a longer version as he did with films such as KINGDOM OF HEAVEN which improved with expansion. For me it's kind of one note
On the other hand there are the set pieces which simply blow you away. From the opening storming of the fortress and attack on the British fleet to the final Battle of Waterloo it's just glorious filmmaking that keeps us watching even as the drama stalls.
Worth a look if you can see it big.
(Just try not to giggle at the final shot)
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