Review by huldahvonn

Apparently Hollywood thinks the world is sick of the traditional three act, 1.5-2 hour movie and every period drama must be a 2.5hrs+ epic with absolutely no traditional storytelling structure. Movie makers are no longer trying to tell stories, they're trying to take you "on a journey". If that is your schtick, you're going to absolutely love this film. But for someone like me, who appreciates a more focused narrative, this movie feels like someone read the Cliffs notes of Napoleon's biography, made a scene from each note and then called it a day. It just didn't feel coherent; the narrative jumps from one place and year to another and introduces far too many characters, all of which probably played a vital role in history, but are not given nearly enough screen time to impact the story of the movie or make a memorable impression on the viewer. I had great difficulty in remembering which character was which, if I was supposed to have seen a character before or not and what role they played in the story.

I will say that the costumes and the sets look amazing. I'm no fashion historian so I won't speak to their actual accuracy but at least everybody looked period accurate to the average viewer and the set pieces looked expensive, lush and elaborative. The VFX were pretty good, I enjoyed the cinematography and the acting was mostly good (although I will say I find Phoenix to be a bit of a one trick pony when it comes to his style of acting).

But the score... I can't get past it. Why, oh why, would they use the very well known score of Joe Wright's Pride and prejudice (2005) as background music? And not just any old song, the very theme song that so many of us know and love, the opening song of the movie. It completely took me out of the scenes, as there were at least a couple of them where the familiar tune was prominently featured. It seems Sir Ridley Scott thought he needed a lite motive for the bizarre couple, i.e. Napoleon and Josephine, and just thought he'd just use this one since it already exists. My god, if using an original score is not in the budget, just use some open domain music from the time period. Imagine watching the new Hunger games film and then notice the Harry Potter theme song playing in the background.

Anyways, to conclude; This is a very picturesque, pretty sort of movie but it is simultaneously too long and too short. It was too long to keep the average viewer invested since there is no real plot line, no endearing characters, no mystery or enigma to solve, no character growth, no central theme or point. It was too short to properly convey about 20 years worth of history and did not do justice to the incredibly complex character that was Napoleon and, indeed, his wife Josephine. I would say I'd look forward to watching the 4 hour directors cut that they plan to publish on Apple's streaming service but my god, I cannot endure 4 more hours of this.