muthaf9cka

Brilliant acting, brilliantly shot, but where's the story? Having Jodie Comer's character as the erstwhile narrator was a brilliant deviation from tradition, but who's the hero and who's the villain? I know it's based on a book and therefore a true story, but you can bend a story to fit narrative arc. This film has no clear protagonist and the supposed antagonist is only in it briefly as a cardboard cut-out "victim of circumstance". Also, we never clearly establish any of the motives of the main characters. Why are they in the club? Why do they rebel? What are their goals? More importantly, why are any of them riding motorcycles and why don't they just drive cars? This is clearly a key point as I'm guessing the Chicago winters are not fun to ride in.

As a keen biker, I loved the characters and the motorcycles, but this was a series of vignettes rather than a cohesive story.

Biopics are usually bad, but this one begins in the middle and then meanders towards a jeopardyless end. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a tragedy, but the seeds of Napoleon's downfall were not present at any stage in the earlier part of the film at all. For a film effectively ending on such a defining battle, there's little build up to it. The film is a series of vignettes, most of them portraying Napoleon as a misunderstood genius. There's nothing about his childhood, virtually nothing about his European campaigns (or their motivation) and nothing about his politics. I've actually come away from this biopic knowing less about Napoleon than when I started. More importantly, his naval defeats, so fundamental to France's trading empire, are not mentioned at all. If you only watched this film, you'd think Napoleon appeared from nowhere, French people instantly loved him, he commanded the French army to endless victories and then was unfortunately defeated at Waterloo after a small blip where he was exiled. Oh, and he was a hit with the ladies.

The film is quite pretty, however and the acting is good.

There are no sympathetic characters in the series and the ideas are not deeply explored. It starts with a whiny principle character who remains whiny throughout and behaves appallingly to the people who care for her.