Decline of an Empire (or Katherine of Alexandria as originally intended) boasts a great cast and an intriguing premise. Whether the events depicted are historically accurate or not seems to be the common topic of debate surrounding this movie on the IMDb message boards. Who cares? The more important question is 'Is it a good film?' The answer is yes and no. So, let's look at the good: From a producing point of view, it's incredibly impressive that this film was made independently. The scale of it is huge and Michael Redwood (director/producer) has obviously done well to get to the point where this film could actually be made. It features some great performances. O' Toole's performance is especially notable and beautiful words ooze from him here. I especially enjoyed the scene where he is murdered. Very epic and very cool at the exception of a few poor composition choices.
The bad: It's a film full of patchiness and uneven performances. The writing at points is unbelievably awful and cheesy. It's hard for any actor to read some of this dialogue well. Indulgent nonsense some of it and could have certainly done with a draft or two more...Or just a re- write from somebody great at dialogue. At times, the directing is sub- standard. The battle scene was particularly terrible and not believable as a battle scene.
At times, there are also indulgent moments where you just think "Why do that?" For example, there is a scene where O' Toole stands by a window whilst talking with another character. For some reason, there's a column bang in the middle of the frame and they've opted to glide from one side of the column to another. Why? There's no need for movement there, just get rid of the bloody column and the shot will look great! I must say, this is a good effort for a first time director but the film goes from one extreme to the other throughout. I'd say with some of the lesser known actors, their performances were great at points but certainly uneven at others. It has just been played far too big and demonstrates a lack of good instincts on the director's behalf.
Overall, it was certainly worth a watch but I wouldn't watch it twice. Cheesy-ness for the Asda sales bin but a gem when compared with the other films in that sales bin.
The bad: It's a film full of patchiness and uneven performances. The writing at points is unbelievably awful and cheesy. It's hard for any actor to read some of this dialogue well. Indulgent nonsense some of it and could have certainly done with a draft or two more...Or just a re- write from somebody great at dialogue. At times, the directing is sub- standard. The battle scene was particularly terrible and not believable as a battle scene.
At times, there are also indulgent moments where you just think "Why do that?" For example, there is a scene where O' Toole stands by a window whilst talking with another character. For some reason, there's a column bang in the middle of the frame and they've opted to glide from one side of the column to another. Why? There's no need for movement there, just get rid of the bloody column and the shot will look great! I must say, this is a good effort for a first time director but the film goes from one extreme to the other throughout. I'd say with some of the lesser known actors, their performances were great at points but certainly uneven at others. It has just been played far too big and demonstrates a lack of good instincts on the director's behalf.
Overall, it was certainly worth a watch but I wouldn't watch it twice. Cheesy-ness for the Asda sales bin but a gem when compared with the other films in that sales bin.