Kilgore Trounce

Ridley Scott ruined what could have been a great HBO historical series. I had a bad feeling when I watched the first trailer and saw he was going to cram the story of Napoleon from the execution or Antoinette all the way to Waterloo in under three hours and that initial hesitance turned out to be correct. This could have been an amazing miniseries, if not a show with a three or four season run telling the most important story in Modern Europe’s formation before the World Wars. I’ve can’t think of any of Joaquin Phoenix’s movies I haven’t enjoyed before this, but this one was a letdown. I never forgot it was him. That’s not to say this isn’t worth seeing. I appreciated Scott’s recreation of famous Napoleon themed paintings and I’ll probably see it again some random Sunday afternoon on the couch, but don’t get your hopes up and for damn sure don’t walk away from this thinking you’ve learned much, if anything, about history.