Murray Morison

What a glorious mess. Fantasy version of Roman history complete with fighting apes yet to be discovered and a pretty rubbish storyline. The fighting is bloody, gory and gruesome with some epic moments. It’s the sort of film you expect a once great director to make when he begins to lose his genius. But see it as its history (of cinema, not Roma).

Worth seeing, but a great opportunity lost. The battle scenes are remarkable. What is lacking is any real charisma around Napoleon. He comes over as a petulant narcissist rather than an exceptional administrator and phenomenally gifted war strategist. Reducing him to a love starved Emperor hardly works as he was so much more. At the end, the question remains … what burning question does this film answer? It’s not clear.