Napoleon

Official Australian release date: 23/11/23. Viewed: 25/11/23.
Director: Ridley Scott
Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim, Rupert Everett
Genre: War / Drama
Rating: MA

‘Napoleon’ is another grand historical epic from the masterful Ridley Scott, and while it’s hard to compare all his films, this would rank below ‘Gladiator’, ‘Black Hawk Down’ and ‘The Martian’, but better than ‘The Last Duel’, ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘Kingdom of Heaven’. The film starts during the French Revolution in the 1790s, when Napoleon Bonaparte (Phoenix) is already in his 20s and an up-and-comer in the French army. There’s not a whole lot of back-story, as there’s a lot of his life to fit into the 2.5 hours. We then see a few pivotal battles and meet his soon-to-be wife, Josephine (Kirby) and politician/advocate Paul Barras (Rahim), as Napoleon becomes Counsul.

While Kirby is good, the film probably spends more time than is needed establishing the relationship between Napoleon and Josephine and their trying to conceive an heir. While more background to the French revolution, the mechanisms of how Napoleon become Emperor and why he was going to war with some of the other countries would’ve been nice, it’s already hard to keep up with the amount of characters – other army generals, governors, politicians, foreign kings, etc.

What grounds the whole film is Phoenix – as usual, he’s a great mix of serious, eccentric and captivating. I assume he’ll be Oscar-nominated again. The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 is impressive and superbly staged and looks done mostly without CGI. The Duke of Wellington (Everett) only comes into the film in the final 40min or so, but is a good counter-point to Napoleon. While never getting bogged down and it’s certainly a good film, it feels like there’s something missing that would’ve made this great. Maybe the 4-hour cut will remedy it!

Overall: Well-made story of one of history’s most famous characters

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars

 

The Marvels

Official Australian release date: 9/11/23. Viewed: 11/11/23.
Director: Nia DaCosta
Actors: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Samuel L Jackson
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: M

‘The Marvels’ is the sequel to ‘Captain Marvel’ and the first time we’ve seen Carol Danvers (Larson) since ‘Avengers: Endgame’. The difference this time is that this time, fate brings her, Monica Rambeau (Parris, introduced in ‘WandaVision’) and Kamala Khan (Vellani, introduced in ‘Ms Marvel’) together to stop the new Kree threat this time, Dar-Benn (Ashton). Tying it all together, like he’s done so many times, in Nick Fury (Jackson) – but he has a lot more levity here than in ‘Secret Invasion’, thankfully.

There’s a bit of background to the Kree/Skull war, but not too much – but the best aliens are still the cats/Flerken, who have a nice mini-role to play. Special mention to the singing/choreography-dancing aliens on the water planet too. Besides stopping the Kree from destroying more worlds, the main plot point is the three lead characters finding out how to use their light-powers together and complement heach other. This is helped by Kamala enthusiasm and teenage idealism – like the show, this is a real breath of fresh air and balances well with Carol and Monica.

We also get Kamala’s mum, dad and brother, who also add some nice heart and humour, including with Fury and during the initial place-swapping scenes. There’s some middling battle scenes, but some nice CGI and planets throughout. The ending is mostly satisfying, with a good mid-credits scene.

Overall: Good standalone buddy adventure

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars