I wasn't that impressed. At all.

Rating: 5/10 (11 August 2019)

The most impressive line in the whole thing was "Because love doesn't lie!"
If the question of what love is , is still a mystery, we are a sad, sad bunch.
I think the world of art was probably far more impressed with this because it was the shallow man's feeling tale. For someone arrogant , power hungry, and used to the exploits of ambition, this is probably a marvel, and self revelatory. For the rest of us, who long ago examined our need for competition and jealousy, ego and power hungry desperation- it's the lesser offering of so many delicious movies out there about the same exact thing.
Personally I didn't like how they merged modern with history .. it made it less believable and more appeasing the subject matter and really at it' end, insulting to think we couldn't sit through a movie that was actually realistic about history.
I know it was a stab at comedy but ... it just fell short. On every level.
Everyone is going on and on over the script- it makes me wonder what kind of exposure they have to literacy.
I mean with period pieces - just off the top of my head- Rob Roy, Dangerous Liaisons ( with Glen Close) they make this script remedial when we compare. Of course those movies weren't block busters - how could they be? Half the planet literally couldn't sit through them.
So, I felt it was a vapid offering of the same dish, that has been done sooo much better before.
In the end it is just another shallow story about self love and the will to survive, than love or power.
And maybe that was the entire point after all.