Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

brucefant Truly wished I had not wasted my time, or money. Needless to say, unnecessary historical inaccuracies and falsehoods abound...leading me to suspect that the writers may not have passed their history classes in college. If the writers wanted to make up something entertaining, and accuracy be damned, then why not make up something completely outlandish and exciting--maybe sending Octavius to Mexico to fight the Mayans or Aztecs...or maybe turning Marc Antony into a transgendered dwarf sent to find the abominable snowman..or how about "Julius Caesar--Vampire Hunter"...cause, hey, if all you're concerned about is entertainment value, why hold back? But beyond the horrendous screen play and the poor writing, what really ticks me off about these movies with their 'casts of thousands' are the extras. To me, you only have to look at the extras in the background to tell the quality of the film. When the director tells every extra to pump their fists up and down in the air in every crowd scene...such obviously unenthusiastic and unrealistic, even fake, fist pumping which doesn't match the expression on the extra's face, tells you right away that this is a cheap piece of film even though its budget was in the tens of millions of dollars. And the battle scenes where the extras are arrayed in battle... just watching the extras in the background as they pretend to strike and parry their swords reminds me of bad amateur community theater--swear I saw a couple of rubber swords bend... and really poor unrealistic sword-fighting choreography... With the budget this film had, no reason they couldn't have gotten more 'acting' out of the extras...or maybe a fencing lesson or two. Stay away from this film unless you have no interest history.

fausto72 Well folks, last two nights I saw This mini series on Spain TV, as I am a beloved of everything related to Ancient History, specially on media (movies, series, documentaries). Recently also in Spain was shown another big historical series, BHO's Rome, I liked it very much, and I was hoping something in the same way. But this series, Empire, really I disliked, the way it was played and most of all the history, quite inaccurate. Some items of the history (Tyrant, for example) does not fit very well, and remembers too much Tom Scott's Gladiator (even the music was very similar in that way), another parts of the history were underestimated or even cut out. I mean the last of the Antonio's and the final fight between Octavio and Antonio, the Accio Battle and other episodes (Cleopatra affair). In deed the plot was sometimes incomplete, sometimes inappropriate. In the other hand, the players, the actors, have taken part in different ways; stand out Agripa, maybe Tyrant, sometimes Caesar, sometimes Ciceron, but the rest in my opinion sometimes overplayed (Antonio), sometimes had a poor acting (Octavio). Really hoped more

Benoît A. Racine (benoit-3) I've watched this four-hour TV epic on DVD with many reservations, which mostly turned out to be true. I've stopped counting the historical inaccuracies long ago and am now trying simply to enjoy this mini-series as entertainment but it's still hard to do, what with a retired Roman general named Magonius who is played by a Black man (!), a "gladiator prison" called "Arkham" (!!) and a slave, played by Jonathan (Beef) Cake, who speaks better English than his master (!!!). The treachery of Anthony is particularly appalling in historical terms but is typical of a script that must have been workshopped in a weekend writers' seminar while channeling every Roman epic cliché ever shot (including some from grand opera, like the deviant Vestal virgin) and putting their incidents in a blender, with the Cate Blanchett voice-over from "The Lord of the Rings" and the medical emergencies from "All My Children" thrown in for good measure. The production values are acceptable, the film shows a lot of sex, violence, sadism and decadence but the cinematography is divided into two groups of scenes: luscious long CGI shots of the countryside or cityscapes with great emphasis on colour, time of day, composition etc. and action/crowd scenes where the camera is jittery at all times and only captures the action in grainy or telephoto close-ups (à la "Gladiator") chopped up in an editing style which makes theses scenes very forgiving of little things like missed cues, bad stunt-work and confused direction, but unfortunately robs them of all majesty, grandeur and clarity. I suppose it could have been much worse. One positive thing is that since this was made for American television, all the major story points are repeated at least six times to allow the addle-brained viewer to follow the plot between bathroom and snack breaks. The four hours fly by rather fast even if they make the viewer less informed about Roman times than if he had never seen them.

carmen_meline You guys, the movie is good. A little too good for something made by an American company. OK, bad comment here. What can I say, most of the historic dramas I've seen were not even close... And the fact that J. Cake (Tyrannus of Rome) looks yummy and acts pretty damn well helps the film A LOT... OK, so I have a soft spot for Gladiators... :-) The actors and actresses are pretty and talented, great directing and very good battle scenes. To be honest, I didn't sit around to analyze the goofiness... Almost same story as Gladiator, only the good guy doesn't die at the end and everyone kind of lives happily ever after - no news on further killings and battles. The story is good, historic facts are very well combined with the "commercial" aspect. Inspiring lines, which is a big part of the success, I give it 9 out of 10 - 5 of which are for acting... Worth seeing, really! I was hooked after seeing the 2nd part. Good thing I know my history!