This is no Braveheart or Kingdom of heaven

Rating: Null/10 (20 December 2018)

This is a misfire from Mel Gibson. I won't use the director Ronald Emmerich here as we all are well aware of his prowess. This is a derivative and relentlessly mediocre motion picture. The Patriot suffers from a series of potentially fatal flaws: poor character development, a lack of tension, stifling strains of political correctness, a rambling screenplay, manipulative and emotionally untrue "big moments", and wretched pacing. Most war films, no matter what their setting, build gradually to a momentous climax. This doesn't happen during The Patriot. There is a big skirmish at the end, but it doesn't seem like the culmination of all that has preceded it. Great battle scenes in movies stir the blood; this one left me cold. Overall, the pacing is uneven and the tone monotonous. With only a couple of exceptions, Emmerich fails to generate tension. The Patriot is a disappointment. Caleb Deschanel's gorgeous cinematography and John Williams' score give the film an impressive sheen but that's about all the good I can say.