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To be honest, I lost faith in Ridley Scott a while back but the guy keeps coming up with some projects which do sound so interesting so he still manages to peak my interest every time again. At least, until I watch the actual end-result and this movie was a perfect example. Indeed, to have Scott directing a massive historical epic about Napoleon with Joaquin Phoenix, easily one of the best actors at work nowadays, did sound so awesome. Anyway, I finally watched the damned thing and, well, it was another typical Scott feature, I'm afraid. Indeed, while Stanley Kubrick had been working on this subject for at least a decade but didn't manage to make his movie, it took Ridley Scott only 3 years between announcing that it would be his next project and actually delivering it (it took also only 60 days to shoot). I'm not saying that it was rushed, the whole think looked amazing and the directing and/or editing didn't feel clunky at all. However, it was certainly nothing dazzling either and even though you spend more than 2.5 hrs with Napoleon, it didn't really go deep into the notorious historical figure. Basically, it seemed that the guy was a military genius but, aside from that, he was actually fairly pathetic in pretty much everything else. Concerning Joaquin Phoenix, to be honest, I'm not sure if I really cared about his performance as it felt that Napoleon was constipated for most of the duration. Who knows, maybe it will work better with the 4 hrs version that will be released on Apple TV+ (it wouldn't be the first time that Scott would deliver later on a superior director's cut). At least, even though I was born in France and must have learned all that stuff in school years ago, I have to admit it that I forgot most about it and it was nice to get acquainted again with this page of French history. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject or in Ridley Scott's work.
6/10
