Straight out of the cinema. Generally, the film is good, but not on the level of some other Scott's historical epics like KoH DC, Gladiator and The Last Duel. It seems to me that the same situation as was with Kindgom of Heaven has happened again, just maybe in a less extreme sense. Film is not bad in any way, just feels over edited down, especially in the first half.
The production value is top notch, the costume design, the set design, the photography ... I think this was the best depiction of battles and the consequences of cannon fire ever depicted, I can not stress how exceptional the film is in this regard. Another positive is the soundtrack. i haven't heard much of Martin Phipps music outside War and Peace, but he really knocked it out of the park .. some really memorable music cues, that stayed in my head latter on.
As far as the acting is concerned, it is Kirby who dominates, who plays Josephine brilliantly and is the key to the film. Phoenix's take on Napoleon is slightly subversive and not exactly expected, at times, especially in the personal sphere it slips into a slight satire (which reminded me of characterization of certain House of Gucci characters). I see how French may have a problem with this depiction. The other actors simply have too little screen time to be memorable.
The main problem with the film is that I always had the feeling that it lacked important scenes between certain historical developments that would give context to why characters behave in certain ways, and dialogues that would deepen and better explain certain actions. Especially in the first hour and a half, it seemed to me that the film is really over-edited, jumping all the time from one important moment to the next, important historical moments passing by as mere vignettes, without any real depth or reason why certain things happen (if you know history you might explain certain things yourselves, but the film leaves much to interpretation). In keeping with this, film lacks focus and certain character drive, as it feels like it just goes through moments; there is a lot of consequences without any prior reasons let's say (it reminded me in that way of Exodus: Gods and Kings, which I also felt was poorly edited and characters weren't given any proper motivation -> but it's generally much better film, fear not). A lot of it, the film tries to explain through narration of letters from Napoleon to Josephine but it still leaves confused impression. This gets much, much better in second half, when the film finally calms down, Waterloo sequence being really masterfully done.
I have seen Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer in cinema (all being long movies) and this was the first, where I thought the film would really use an additional minimum of 30-45 minutes at least. Really hope the director's cut is released as soon as possible, as I think it shall fix a lot of issues I had with the film (I also missed any mention of political reforms of France under Napoleon, especially educational, legal (Code Civil), Illyrian Provinces etc.).
