max_s444

Yes. i know what you're thinking. It's a three hour movie and you already know the ending. but this is THE movie and it's worth every penny. Forget any biased opinion, any thought of 'this is just another movie' and most of all, you must not wait for the DVD. This film is meant to be viewed in the cinema, on the biggest screen you can find.

A combination of the 30's classic feel with 21st century effects, some of the best actors around and a great director at the top of his game who's totally in love with the film. One of the greatest action scenes of all time (3 T-Rexs and one angry Kong) and the most insane love story that convinces you completely. Kong is king one more time.

in my opinion, the major flaw of this production is that it doesn't aim properly. there is no way to capture the entire napoleonic era, not in 6 hours and not in 60 hours. the best angle is to pick one topic and focus on it. picking napoleon is of course the most natural thing to do. focusing on his character alone is slightly more problematic. it could've been done better if the character wasn't written so flatly - there is a lot of conflict inside him considering his origin, his position and the many pressures from all sides that he constantly struggles against, quite successfully at times. none of that is shown. we get a cardboard figure, with many good points missing (like the jena battle, where his victory was sidelined by one of his marshals' success at the same time in auerstadt, and napoleon's dilemma regarding the man), many interesting characters missing or lacking depth (massena, bernadot, ney) and other faults. the small scale of the massive battles is a shame, also, although judging from other comments here, the DVD version could have them more on the wide-scale.

all in all, it could've been better. TV movies are judged less harshly then "real" movies. maybe if the creators where put more to the test, this work could've achieved a higher standard.