Braveheart 2?

Rating: Null/10 (13 August 2000)

Perhaps not. Of course there are shallow parallels in the plot between the two films: man refuses to fight against the British - British kills members of man familiy - man gets pissed and kill a ton of Brits. It's apparent that Gibson will probably not be knighted for his acting/directing prowess anytime soon.
But there are emotional and cinematic diffences that just makes Braveheart the better movie. The battle scenes in braveheart were much more grander and richer in scale. They seemed realer, perhaps due to the lack of score during the bulk of the scenes in order to give it a more documentarian feel to it.

Then there is character the Gibson played in this film compared to William Wallis. The Wallis character seem larger than life, an epic hero in an epic movie. The Benjamin Martin character is a more mortal character that did not have the emotional impact on me than Wallis.
Of course, this is probably done on purpose. Willis is based on a real life folk hero, while Martin is a character created in a general historical drama.
But if you however, do not obsess like I have on how similar or different The Patriot is to Braveheart, you will find that Patriot is a very satisfying film (not as satisfying as braveheaNONONO!!! must...stop...comparing!!...)
It's filled with outstanding chacters. Heath Ledger was awesome, and the chemistry between him and Gibson was so good that it seemed like they really did share the same genetic material. This role definitely redeemed him from the post brat-pack teen date movies (10 things I hate about you). Jason Isaacs plays the bad guy so well that people may want to punch him in the nose if they ever saw him in public.
The plot was innovated. The way they filled Gibson's band of militia with half idealists and half ruffnecks posed a general question in the film, do you fight with honor and dignity, or do you fight to win?
They even deal with slavery very well, with accuracy and some sense of hope. Being black, I saw when I first saw slaves in this film, I was thinking to myself "I hope they don't drop the ball on this one." But they don't. They showed what happened to slaves during the war, what side they were on, and what was promised to them on from both sides (colonial, British) when the war was over.
Of course, there are some parts that are corny, like quicky quotes "It's a free country, or at least it will be", and just scenes of blatant patriotic symbolism. But hey, its that type of movie that is suppose to make you feel good about America, so watch it and try to take in the idealism of it all, without having the reality of the complex, modern version of the country they are fighting so hard for.