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Reviews
Napoleon (2023)
Misleading Marketing
When I heard of a Napoleon movie, my first thought was of his military genius. That's usually the first thing the average person thinks of when they hear the name Napoleon. The marketing and trailers for this movie seemed to support that idea, that we would get an action packed epic detailing mostly his military achievements, while also diving into his rise to power as emperor, his calm but menacing domination over foreign affairs, and of course a bit of his personal life with Josephine. In that case, 2 hours and 45 minutes seemed a decent runtime to cover his nearly 20 year history.
I did not expect that history to be oddly viewed through his relationship with Josephine, an odd choice which resulted in a huge reduction of focus on his military career. I didn't expect to be able to count the action sequences of this movie on one hand. Most of the political stuff felt a bit dry and robbed of the grandiosity the trailers seemed to promise, such as his coup, which plays out with him first being chased out of the palace by an angry mob, and then sending his troops in to take over, unlike the trailer which leads you to believe he first arrived to immediately send troops in and march himself into the palace like a badass.
The primary focus on his relationship with Josephine made most of the movie hang with an air of discomfort due to the numerous depictions of their sexual life. I understand her failure to give him an heir was an important event, but there was a jarring lack of censorship in the scenes of which there were a few too many, leading you to pick up the hints and worry "are they going to start again?" Not to mention the way the movie will suddenly cut right into the act can be jarring and uncomfortable.
But there is some good, and that is when the movie does focus on Napoleon's military career. The lack of censorship in the battles is a good touch of realism and something that should be seen in a historical film touching on war. The first battle scene at Toulon is shown from thr perspective of a younger Napoleon who is freaking out a bit at the carnage around him as he goes into battle alongside his men. There's one moment where he begins riding toward the fort when his horse is hit in the chest with a cannonball, and the horse's chest completely explodes in full gory, squelching realism that's naturally censored somewhat by the dark setting. And the scene where he fires cannons upon a mob of civilians is equally disturbing and the tone is treated as such.
The movie then skips over the War of the First Coalition where he gained his first real glory and skips straight to his campaign in Egypt, which itself is almost entirely skipped with the shot if him shooting at the pyramids from the trailer being literally the entirety of it. As with most of the battles, this is largely done over a narrated letter to Josephine, and is thus, brief.
His crossing of the Alps during the War of the Second Coalition is skipped and after he crowns himself emperor, we get to the Battle of Austerlitz, easily the best scene of the movie. While to my knowledge, much of the battle is depicted inaccurately, entirely focusing on his firing at the frozen lake and not really touching on his retreat from the hills or his deceptive decoy of a weak right flank, the male choral music that plays over the breaking of the ice as he looks on with a stone cold look is a wonderfully executed scene of the real Napoleon's magnum opus. The music does not display the tone of a triumphant victory despite the event being just that. Rather, the music plays almost from the horrific perspective of those attempting to escape across the ice. Dark, and haunting, as cannonballs rocket through the ice, leaving people to drown in the increasingly bloodying water. This was one of two times I felt like I was truly watching the movie I had expected to see; Napoleon as a ruthless, seemingly invincible tactical genius, who annihilated his enemies in their desperate attempts to escape him, effectively, the Grand Admiral Thrawn of real life.
After Austerlitz, the War of the Fourth Coalition is skipped, missing the opportunity to have a similar scene as Austerlitz play out with the double Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. Skipping the Fifth Coalition, and not giving any mention to Trafalgar and his troubles in Spain, the movie immediately moves to Napoleon's invasion of Russia, but kind of fails to establish that his key to victory was speedy attacks and the fact that the retreating Russians were burning the land as they fled so he had to wait for the slow supply trains. The moment when he arrives in Moscow to find it deserted, and then on fire is appropriately well done, highlighting his reaction to the realization that the Russians burned their own city to defeat him, and the point of it being his greatest mistake is hammered in pretty well, detailing how he took 600,000 men into Russia and only came back with 40,000 because they were left in the Russian winter with no supplies.
But then it moves onto his exile, completely skipping the War of the Sixth Coalition and the Battle of Leipzig which was the real reason for his downfall, not his reckless invasion of Russia like the film suggests, (it also skips another potentially interesting plot point, that being the bottle of poison he kept around his neck for years, which he drank upon learning of his exile, only to find it had gone out of date).
His return from exile and the scene of the soldiers sent to arrest him instead joining his march back to Paris was good and the climax with the Battle of Waterloo was also well done, to my knowledge being the most historically accurate conflict portrayed in the movie. I also like how the movie's ending with his sudden and random toppling over in death is left ambiguous, a bit of a nod to how there are conflicting debates over how he really died, whether it was from stomach cancer, or perhaps poison.
One political aspect I was surprised to see absent was his appointment of one of his own men, Karl Johan as Crown Prince of Sweden, only for Johan to later join the coalition against him. And one last pro is that the first twenty minutes or so set during the aftermath of the French Revolution, including events such as Toulon, Robespierre's arrest, the execution of Marie Antoinette, and Napoleon's actions against the mob, were all a strong start to a movie which fizzled out afterward.
Return to Zootopia (2017)
Simply Incredible
This is a truly amazing work and it's a great show of how the term "fanfiction" gets a bad rap and is usually used for something bad and unprofessional. But this is a great example that fanfiction can be just as good as a professionally made work. This fanfilm never seemed to feel like it wasn't Zootopia. The characters were portrayed so well and accurately, the acting was really good, (especially when Anton Mabey cuts loose as psycho Miles Walker) and the story was original and captivating. It didn't feel like it was some cheap knock-off. It really did feel like it was a true sequel to the first movie. If you liked Zootopia, you should definitely check this out.
Mortal Kombat (2021)
Definitely worthy of the title
For a movie based off a fighting game, it had a surprisingly good original story. I liked the way they explained how the characters have their superhuman powers. The action is exactly what you come to see. The blood, the gore. It doesn't shy away from showing any of it. And there plenty of references and fun things from the games to see. From the characters themselves, to the iconically brutal fatalities and the infamous phrases from the games. Hiroyuki Sanada's deliverance of Scorpion's "get over here!" does not disappoint. The movie even pokes fun at some of the ways the game is played such as button mashing or only using one move over and over again. Definitely a fun movie to watch if you can handle the gore, especially if you're a fan of the games.
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Exactly what I expected, but that's not a bad thing
I went into this movie expecting a fun adventure with fun characters and that's what I got. Sure, it's a pretty basic McGuffin plot and the second act is a bit redundant, but it's still a good movie. It has a unique world and characters. Sisu was really likeable for me and I had a good time whenever she was on screen.
My personal favorite of the side characters is Tong, given how surprsingly tragic his story is for a side character. It's bad enough he lost his whole tribe, but he also lost his family, including his baby. And he puts on this mask of being this really tough, feared warrior to hide his pain. I was honestly really happy for him once everyone came back and he saw his village full of life again.
The action scenes are done wonderfully and the music is great. All around, another great Disney film.