An enjoyable mess!

Rating: Null/10 (29 May 2000)

Talk about an oxymoron! This movie was, in general, a disappointment. Nonetheless, I enjoyed watching it. It started out beautifully. The opening sequence was fantastic! The cinematography, mainly in the first few minutes of the movie, but throughout the entire length of the movie was wondrous. Yet, the story went from interesting and inviting to plain stupid. At first I thought this movie would be a direct remake of "The Fall Of The Roman Empire", but unfortunately it was not. Somewhere along the line, this movie lost its balance. I think it happened at the point where Maximus leaves "Germania" in search of his family. It seemed as if the director of this movie tried to take elements from "Conan the Barbarian" and "Spartacus", and incorporate them with the main story from "The Fall Of The Roman Empire". The fight scenes were astonishing, though too many special effects were used in this movie...at certain moments in the movie I felt like if I was watching "The Phantom Menace"--ugh! All those things contributed to making this movie a mess. However, I would surely recommend this movie to others. Although this movie is more than two hours long, it's not boring. The most notable thing I can say about Russell Crowe is: America, meet your newest star! For those who weren't familiar with him or his work prior to this movie, prepare yourselves. He's the next big thing--everyone else move over. He's got the talent, the looks, and the presence to become a movie STAR. Also, I liked seeing the great Richard Harris as the emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Furthermore, I was impressed by Connie Nielsen. At first I thought, why cast a Danish actress in a role that could easily be played by an American or British actress? But she really did a fine job in this movie. In addition, I liked the costumes, though they were too unrealistic, but they were striking. On the other hand, so much money was spent on special effects to show how wonderful ancient Rome was; yet in the entire movie, you only get to see a couple of minutes of shots of the city. Also, Joaquin Phoenix's acting was terrible, though he does have the look of a villain....maybe when he's older he'll make a better villain in a movie. While the ending was very similar to the ending in "Braveheart", I feel that toward the end, this movie redeemed itself. The last twenty or so minutes of this movie were pretty good. I just might go see this movie again, for the action scenes. **1/2 out of ****. By the way, wasn't that the kid from "Life Is Beautiful" playing Russell Crowe's son?