Great battles, weak napoleon This movie has many faults, as you can probably already deduce by the low rating. Let's get the positives out of the way. Ridley Scott knows how to direct a battle. Whilst I am not familiar in detail with all of Napoleons battles, I could appreciate the famous tactics shown by the french general that did stick with me from pop culture. The battles are very transparent, very atmospheric and with very little limitations on gore. It is kind of a shame that most of them are limited to 3-4 minutes without too much detail but still amazing shots all around. Another positive is Josephine which is a very big part of the movie. Her and Napoleons relationship is explored deeply with a lot of cheerful chaotic scenes, confrontations that add a lot of depth to both characters and the background narration taken from their correspondence to each other before every battle. I loved her character and her impact was not understated. Maybe even overemphasized at times.
Now to the negatives. Joaquin Phoenix is just awful. It is a problem arisen by the actor and the writing. There is just not a lot of features that distinguises him from partially neurotic, temperamentel characters he played in the past as seen in Inherent Vice or even Her. This is the man who came up with the Code Civil, one of the most significant piece of law ever created, this is the man who came up with brilliant battle tactics, forcing europe to its knees. However in this movie it all seems like he stumbled upon success by accident every single time. His performance lacks conviction and confidence, so when you do get to watching him execute brilliant battle tactics you can barely believe that it is him who came up with them.
Another aspect is the politics, they seem to be added for complexity but are just a very small part of the movie. Interactions are limited to a few ambassador scenes and mutual compliment exchange between kings.
Another complaint is going to be the lack of military. By that I mean the interactions necessary to depict Napoleon as a competent military leader. He was infamous for having fret like relationships with his soldiers, having a very hands on approach and bonding with the troops as a roman general whould have done. Almost nonexistent which is a real head scratcher, as his armies were the main factor of his power.
Lastly I would like to adress the fluidity problem with this movie. It is divided into stages of his rise and fall. The revolution, his crowning, his exile, his comeback and lastly exile again. The one bounding factor of all these stages being Josephine, you can see their bond grow and change over the years but apart from that little is explained about the transition, one scene he is a lowly captain, another scene a general, and another a crowned emperor. These transitions happen way too quick in the first 30 minutes of the movie. You don't see him evolve, not as a person at least, all you see is him getting a new title and change of scenery. These kind of cut offs happen throughout the movie and are a real immersion breaker.
So I do give this movie a 6 because despite of all the flaws, there is top notch production quality, a captivating Josephine performance and just great battles.