Beautiful but boring

Rating: 6/10 (1 January 2000)

In one word: Over-rated. The Last Emperor features breathtaking cinematography, but the plot really lacks substance. I can't really fault the scriptwriter or the director for this, because they appear to have maximally sensationalized the few exciting moments of the rather dull and boring emperor. To make things worse, they extend the movie to well over 200 minutes long when 80 minutes would have been more than adequate. Even cheap documentaries aren't this boring. At the end of the movie, I was left wondering what the whole point of the film was. Sure it looked great, and I got a glimpse of the spoiled brat known as the emperor, but emotions were not stirred, lessons were not taught, and there is just not enough character development for me to empathize. Notice that NOBODY will ever say that this is their favorite film of all time.