I was disappointed

Rating: 7/10 (20 May 2000)

I heard and read that this film is a classic, and thus I expected a really great film. But it's not the case. This film has a serious lack of character development despite it lasts 2 and a half hours. Together with the character development, we can see a poor ambient development. We just see a huge coliseum and thousands of people computer-generated. Just that. We don't see closeups, we can't see the feelings involved, and we feel no empathy at all (for a good example of a well done job, see Kubrick´s Spartacus). The camera moves in the fight scenes are acceptable for films like Saving Private Ryan, set in a time where cameras did exist, but not for a Romans' film... They just seem to be used to make us more difficult to find goofs, and that is a dirty trick in a so expensive movie. Another point is the acting. The actors are not bad, but they don't look like people from the 2nd century. OK, nobody knows how they were, but I am sure they weren't like people from the 20th century. I mean, the dialogue, the way they move, the feelings they show. You can use the same acting and the same music in a film set in the Middle Ages and we wouldn't note the change. If we forget that Ridley Scott is the director and Steven Spielberg is the man behind the production company, we just have a mediocre film. I still can't believe that The Sixth Sense got no oscars and American Beauty took them all. Mr. Spielberg, you are rich enough yet, so please let talented people do their thing and stop your 'This is the greatest film ever' propaganda in a Microsoft style! And you, people, please look with your own eyes and don't follow the stream. Dreamworks is making really good products, but not everything is gold...