{"id":3821,"date":"2024-04-16T15:00:34","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T21:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=3821"},"modified":"2024-03-22T21:19:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T03:19:38","slug":"movie-napoleon-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/16\/movie-napoleon-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"MOVIE: Napoleon (2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Napoleon\"Napoleon
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 2023
\nRating: R
\nLength: 158 minutes \/ 2.63 hours<\/p>\n

On paper, this movie had a lot going for it. Ridley Scott, partnering with Joaquin Phoenix again after the wildly successful Gladiator<\/em> (2000) felt like this was a surefire entertaining film. Instead, the few scenes of military action were the only things that made this movie worth watching. Usually, when I watch a biopic about a famous individual like Napoleon Bonaparte, I\u2019d expect something eyebrow raising that I didn\u2019t know before. Napoleon<\/em> is not that kind of film, as it is filled with history that I already knew, and I don\u2019t consider myself a scholar of Napoleon.<\/p>\n

A lot of biopics tend to either show the genius of their titular character or cast light on their odd behavior (despite their angelic public persona). Napoleon<\/em> has moments of both, each of which undercuts the effectiveness of the other. I can\u2019t take his military success seriously when he has such peculiar bedroom habits, and I find his weird behaviors inconsistent with the occasional moments of strategic genius. That he was successful at all seems a tremendous stroke of luck. Ultimately, Napoleon is not a likable character, which makes watching him for over 2.5 hours a tedious endeavor.<\/p>\n

Napoleon<\/em> seemed to drive home that Ridley Scott is a talented director if he has great source material. Unique screenplays and adaptations like Alien<\/em><\/a> (1979), Blade Runner<\/em><\/a> (1982), Gladiator<\/em> (2000), Matchstick Men<\/em><\/a> (2003), or The Martian<\/em><\/a> (2015) remain as iconic high marks of his filmography. But with every standout movie, there\u2019s a Robin Hood<\/em> (2010), Exodus: Gods and Kings<\/em> (2014), or Napoleon<\/em> that pulls from mostly known public domain stories. Next time, I think I might use this guide to determine whether I\u2019ll use his name recognition before watching one of his movies.<\/p>\n

A disappointing and generic history lesson about an odd Frenchman, I give Napoleon<\/em> 2.5 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" 1\/2<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Napoleon Year: 2023 Rating: R Length: 158 minutes \/ 2.63 hours On paper, this movie had a lot going for it. Ridley Scott, partnering with Joaquin Phoenix again after the wildly successful Gladiator (2000) felt like this was a surefire entertaining film. Instead, the few scenes of military action were the only things that made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2],"tags":[3407,1618,190,223,2042,13,3676,8,480],"class_list":["post-3821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2-5-stars","category-movie","tag-3407","tag-biopic","tag-disappointing","tag-history","tag-joaquin-phoenix","tag-movie","tag-napoleon","tag-review","tag-ridley-scott"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3821"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3829,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3821\/revisions\/3829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}