@goobi3780

5 months ago

Things that should have been changed about this movie imo: 1. More Battle, Less Josephine. The trailer attracts us with epic scenes of battle and glory that we’d associate with Napoleon, exciting calvary charges, firing on the ice, but the main plot really revolves around his relationship with his first wife, and her impact on his life. 2. Better portray his rise to power. The coup scene was hilarious and great, but the transition to Napoleon being a military leader to an arrogant leader is too swift. I wanna see him earn it, I wanna see him getting dirty and aiming the cannons himself, and gaining the respect of his men, and they did deliver with the fort scene, but after that we rarely see any honorable actions by Napoleon. 3. Expand more on his downfall. Napoleon comes back from his first exile, and we immediately cut to Waterloo. It’s a great battle scene, but part of what makes his downfall so great is the betrayal and politically scheming going on by the monarchs around. His own brother betrayed him after being appointed by Napoleon as King of Sweden, if I recall, maybe more drama in that department would have been good. 4. Show more of Napoleon winning. I, at least, came to see Napoleon bring Europe to its knees, and while we do have some of that, there’s just not enough. There’s just way too much of Napoleon and his wife, let me see him divide and conquer, destroy his enemies in more than just montages. I mean come on, his tactics and strategies were the basis of most militaries after him. 5. We needed a better portrayal of his death. Show us the sick, disheveled, and depressed Napoleon that was in his last exile, not him with a grey beard and uniform, suddenly slumping over. Especially because they tell us his true last words after, despite just depicting them completely differently. Overall, they focused a little too much on Napoleon’s personal life and drama, and less on the legend that is Napoleon. Of course, I’m looking at him through romanticized, unrealistic glasses, but that doesn’t matter when I, and I believe most other people watching, came to see that. It’s fun to pick this movie apart, but you have to take into account how much history, and how many events a buffed up story of Napoleon would have. The runtime would be around 4 hours. They did a good job, Joaquin Phoenix is great as Napoleon, the cinematography is beautiful, but story and plot wise, if definitely could have been improved. That’s my take, at least.

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