It's a very hit and miss movie but I'm going to keep short, firstly the good.
Production value is great, the depictions of the landscape, what i think is meant to be Alba Longa, really bring you back to what central Italy must have looked like back in the 8th century bc. Photography is great, lightning is great, shots are generally good, the violence is great and seems to be biologically right and I also really liked the editng. On a technical level it's great. That's about it though.
It's my understanding they didn't try to depict the founding myth of Rome which is fine, in fact, if you are looking to watch a movie that follows that story don't watch this movie, it doesn't not have 1/1000 of the depth of the actual myth and, if you don't know any of it please do, it's a lot like game of thrones in a way.
However that's fine, I understand they meant it to be somewhat of a reconstruction of the founding of Rome with Romolus and Remus as central characters but even that fails.
In the movie nothing happens, there are no character archs, there is no plot so speak, no character development, no instrinsic message and has nothing to do with human nature. even in 5000 bc you'd expect meaningful interactions between people, some sort of cultural common understanding that dcitates whatever level of politics there is... but there is nothing.
it's just a bunch of people (some of whom in clichè leather garments ) who stumble around and area the protagonists should know like the back of their hand, Romolus does nothing all the time, Remus is meant to be the antagonist but is factually the hero, the role of religion is boiled down to a woman with PTSD and everyone is fundamentally depicted as a brute, dialogue isn't meaningful also and... yeah it's bad.
Which is a shame because at a time when shows with a strong foot in realism and pragmatism like Game of Thrones, the Last Kingdom, Vikings, Breaking Bad and many others this movie strips all the depth from the myth and tries to represent nothing of the probable complexities of society that caused the funding of Rome.
realistically you could go on for days but in short, not even the damn pomerium...
Production value is great, the depictions of the landscape, what i think is meant to be Alba Longa, really bring you back to what central Italy must have looked like back in the 8th century bc. Photography is great, lightning is great, shots are generally good, the violence is great and seems to be biologically right and I also really liked the editng. On a technical level it's great. That's about it though.
It's my understanding they didn't try to depict the founding myth of Rome which is fine, in fact, if you are looking to watch a movie that follows that story don't watch this movie, it doesn't not have 1/1000 of the depth of the actual myth and, if you don't know any of it please do, it's a lot like game of thrones in a way.
However that's fine, I understand they meant it to be somewhat of a reconstruction of the founding of Rome with Romolus and Remus as central characters but even that fails.
In the movie nothing happens, there are no character archs, there is no plot so speak, no character development, no instrinsic message and has nothing to do with human nature. even in 5000 bc you'd expect meaningful interactions between people, some sort of cultural common understanding that dcitates whatever level of politics there is... but there is nothing.
it's just a bunch of people (some of whom in clichè leather garments ) who stumble around and area the protagonists should know like the back of their hand, Romolus does nothing all the time, Remus is meant to be the antagonist but is factually the hero, the role of religion is boiled down to a woman with PTSD and everyone is fundamentally depicted as a brute, dialogue isn't meaningful also and... yeah it's bad.
Which is a shame because at a time when shows with a strong foot in realism and pragmatism like Game of Thrones, the Last Kingdom, Vikings, Breaking Bad and many others this movie strips all the depth from the myth and tries to represent nothing of the probable complexities of society that caused the funding of Rome.
realistically you could go on for days but in short, not even the damn pomerium...