Beautifully shot but hollow

Rating: 6/10 (2 November 2019)

First of all, I think a lot of Netflix historical efforts get short shrift. I have enjoyed Marco Polo, Medici, and even the Troy series which many people on voted down. Outlaw King was an enjoyable yarn if a bit heavy on tropes we've seen too many times. All of them I had no problem finishing, however, this film from David Michod I could not finish. I tried to watch another film by Michod, the Rover, a year ago and couldn't finish it either. Both that film and this one are technically well executed, the dialogue is grounded, there are no obvious and irritating plot holes and yet I at least can never connect with any of his protagonists. This is strange because Guy Pearce in the Rover is quite sympathetic, so it's not whats on the paper but the execution of it that fails.
It takes guts to rewrite a period in history that has already been covered by Shakespeare, and it can be done successfully but I don't think it's been done well here. If this is a success for Netflix I hope it leads to more high end historical productions but I felt the need to check the hype on this one.
6/10