Napoleon Thinks It’s “Complicated,” But It’s Just a Mess

Kyle Smart ’26 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Ridley Scott has not been on a hot streak lately. His last two films, The Last Duel and House of Gucci, were both critical or financial flops, and have been essentially forgotten in the two years since release. Scott is hoping to return to the theatrical landscape in a big way, and Napoleon seemed promising. Another massive historical epic from the director of Gladiator, reteaming with one of the best actors of this generation, what could go wrong?

Instead of making a gritty historical epic, Scott combined the tones of House of Gucci (campy dramedy) and The Last Duel (dark historical drama), set it in early 1800s France, and tried to make it work. The film tries to balance silly humor and massive-scale battles, giving it an uneven feel. It wouldn’t have been impossible to do either one of these, but doing both at once leads to a highly unsatisfying film as a whole. 

The comedy of the film is derived from the absolute buffoonery of Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix), and Phoenix does a nice job with these comedic moments; however, they are few and far between, so when the jokes do hit, they feel random and out of place. Phoenix is very good at whining, and that is apparent as that’s pretty much all he does for all 158 minutes of the film, save for the three battle sequences. 

As for the battle sequences, they are very well done, as one has come to expect from Scott. The standout is the Battle of Austerlitz, which occurs around halfway through the film, and is the most visually stunning sequence from a film that should have been full of them. The wintery atmosphere adds a mood that was not previously present, and does not come back for the second half of the film. The surrounding scenes are filled with drab and gray cinematography (not including the Egypt scenes, which are color-graded to an ugly shade of yellow). The way that the physics of war are depicted on-screen is captivating, specifically in reference to the way cannonballs are used throughout any of the action scenes.

The best performance in the film by far comes from Vanessa Kirby, who is playing Napoleon’s wife Josephine Bonaparte. Kirby is able to express the character’s internal feelings perfectly, while never saying too much. It’s a shame that the film is only seemingly pretending to be interested in their relationship, as the script never gives her character much depth outside of what she tells Napoleon to his face, and completely abandons her character a little over halfway through the runtime.

When the credits roll, the film does not feel like a cohesive vision, adding nothing to the story of Napoleon besides a few unexpected jokes, resulting in yet another misfire from Ridley Scott.