It's a shame, really. I was looking forward to this one.

Rating: Null/10 (1 January 2003)

For being one of the most anticipated films of the year, this sure is a let down! When a movie is rumored to have all kinds of trouble on the set it usually means it's not that good after all and this further proves that theory. It's obvious that the troubled film has more than a few screws loose, and sadly enough, the great Martin Scorsese is to blame. Apparently a vanity project that has been in the director's heart for over 30 years, it looks as though this big, bloated disaster will become a great disappointment in the end. At a very slow (almost) 3 hours, the movie just keeps going and going with bothersome inconsistencies popping up all over the place, among many other problems.
Based very loosely on the draft riots of 1863, the characters that did actually exist apparently did not in this particular time frame. It also seems that their costumes did not, either. They appear to be a hybrid of different time periods, although the attention to detail is great, even if misguided. The accents are also distracting, as many of the main characters (save the great Daniel Day-Lewis) slip in and out of them at their leisure, especially the now-beefy Leonardo DiCaprio and miscast Cameron Diaz. The sets look like Old West sets in outer space or something. While mostly filmed on a soundstage in Rome, it doesn't even look close to what New York during that time did. There was supposedly a lot of advisors on the set for authenticity reasons and it paid off to an extent, but a good looking movie is just plain hollow without the right substance. Also, it should be noted that the odd sampled drumbeat and guitar during the opening fight sequence and closing theme song by U2 seem really misplaced. So with all of these distracting elements to take you out of the story, you're left with a generally uninteresting and untrue story about characters you could care less about. There are some characters that even come and go with no explanation as to who they are and why they were ever there.

This is a film that is just too big for its own good. There's so much going on that in the end it just seems like there's still a lot left out or unexplained even at its great length. Not to say that it couldn't have been done in the time frame, it was just too unfocused. There are plenty of times where you might find yourself checking your watch or wishing there was a remote with a fast-forward button laying around the theater. Audible groans were heard throughout the press screening I attended. Like I said before, the characters aren't likeable or interesting enough to want to sit through the ho-hum dialogue and the action scenes are just bloody and seem pointless, or at least they're not explained enough to make it engaging. It's not that it's a complete disaster, it's just too dense and overproduced for its own good.
Maybe there was something that I missed in the 25 minutes that were cut from the theatrical release, but this one just didn't seem to connect with me. I was hoping it would engage, excite, or entice me, but it really just made me wish I could get that three hours of my life back. Not to say that it was a complete waste of time, I just know it could've been a lot better and it saddens me. It's a shame, really. I was looking forward to this one.