Stirrups stirrups stirrups

Rating: Null/10 (7 May 2000)

*sigh* It's strange to see Ridley Scott fail. Which I think he did. This is one of the only movies I've ever seen where historical accuracy would have actually *improved* the script tremendously. If you had known that historically Commodus was well loved by the Army, fought as a gladiator, and even won over most of the Senate it would have been much more believable. The only real chemistry in the film was between Joaquin Phoenix as the mad Emperor and Lucilla as his sister. Every other supporting character appeared to have motivations along the lines of "because the script said so." Although it was visually amazing, the last scene is abruptly and completely different from the entire rest of the movie, which destroys what little (and it was little) emotional commitment you had to the film. I give it a 5.