Disappointed by this 'Epic', but liked the human interest.

Rating: 7/10 (10 July 2000)

I went expecting this movie to 'bring back the epic' to the cinemas. I was disappointed.
Am I along in thinking the CGI work was poor. The CGI snow looked like soap flakes poured down in front of the screen. Why didn't any settle on the actors? The 'long shots' and 'aerial fly-bys' of the city seem straight out of the remade Star Wars movies. The CGI tigers in the Coliseum seemed blurred.
The plot is so clichéd it's breathtaking! We've all seen Ben Hur, we want something different! And the number of times the emperor could have killed Maximus off, it was like a 60's Batman episode when the baddy always want's Batman to die in an interesting way.
I won't list the continuity errors.
However I did like the highly stylised fight scenes. The portrayed the violence without too much gore.
I also liked the explosive tension in the relationships between the three main characters. Portraying a mad emperor is hard, but Joaquin Phoenix managed astonishingly it well.