Arjan Flora

I went into this film with high expectations. Being somewhat decently educated on the subject of Napoleon, I pre-planned my viewing weeks in advance with excitement. Except for the awesome cinematography, costumes, locations - was disappointed by the screenplay! Quite the misnomer, it should have been titled 'Napoleon and Josephine', since swaths of Napoleon's rise, rule, and ruin are omitted, with the focus mainly being Josephine and his relationship. The rest of what should have been about Napoleon was oddly edited in as hastily glossed over snippets, or disregarded completely.

Henry Cavill carried this film. The only times the movie was exciting and gripping (nearly end of my seat, but not as literally as I would want with a Victorian detective mystery thriller) was with Sherlock Holmes....with Enola Holmes, it was catered to the 2020s third-wave feminist movement interpretation of Victorian values via 4th wall commentary. The film was better when she was in jail or otherwise pre-occupied with her rich, handsome, upper class white male love interest (interesting how, despite the push for feminism, the characteristics of the love interest is a top 20% man [who is young, white, extremely rich, extraordinarily handsome, who is stereotypically adoring of straight female attraction to the point that it screams white female privilege] while overtly making a jester out of the older, South Asian, common born, wage laborer as Lestrade as the ugly, old, brown, dimwitted buffoon who has to search her and make a fool out of himself for some cheap, unwarranted laughs). This is the media nowadays...people claiming "woke-ism", but perpetuating the same narrative as the "oppressor", just changing to a straight female version. Sad how all the death and NPC types are all black women (who would historically not be as prominent in Victorian times..make a historically inaccurate representation only to make them underrepresented...so 'woke'). Sherlock Holmes does not have a sister. He only has an older brother named Mycroft Holmes. Enola Holmes should have NEVER have had a second part to a first film which was terrible. This was even worse.